Government seeks public comment on Wisconsin habitat project for endangered piping plover

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is seeking public comment through June 2 about a project that could restore habitat for the piping plover, a federal and state endangered bird.

According to a release from the DNR, the project would improve habitat along about 1,700 feet of St. Louis River shoreline near Superior in the Wisconsin Point Bird Sanctuary, which is owned by the state. 

The project to support re-colonization would use sand dredged from the Duluth-Superior Federal Navigation Channel to improve habitat for the birds on the shoreline and about 8 acres of foraging and nesting habitat, according to the DNR.

The project would be funded by the EPA and designed and constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in conjunction with the Wisconsin DNR, the state said.

Construction would be in 2019 — in the summer and fall.

The piping plover, a small shorebird found only in North America along the Atlantic Coast, the Northern Great Plain and the Great Lakes, was listed as an endangered species in Wisconsin in 1979 and as federally endangered in 1986.

The bird's population has continually declined due to hunting, habitat loss, shoreline development and recreational pressure.

The proposed project would help the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service meet its Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Goal. 

An information session took place at the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve in Superior earlier this month.

Public comments now can be addressed to:

ATTN: CELRE-PLE (Charles A. Uhlark)

US Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District

477 Michigan Ave.

Detroit, MI 48226-2550