As the Piping Plovers are set to descend among the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, volunteers are needed to help monitor Leelanau’s unofficial bird and endangered species.
“Mid-April, the Piping Plovers will arrive and set up their stony little nests all along the beaches of Sleeping Bear Dunes. Working with the Park Service Wildlife Biologist, I am hoping to recruit volunteers for two projects to support the ongoing Piping Plover Recovery Project,” Mary Ellen Newport said in an email. “(Step one) Set up fencing and signage in approximately nine reliable nesting sites on SBDNL beaches. With enough volunteers, this will be a two-day effort: a training day (early April) and a work day (later April).”
The second step is nest monitoring the plovers from April through July as needed in the afternoons and evenings on Leelanau beaches with known nesting plovers.
