Piping plover plan 3 years behind schedule

It could be another six months before a recovery plan for the piping plover in Eastern Canada, which was due in 2006, is finally finished.

The plover was one of the first animals listed under the federal Species at Risk Act, proclaimed in December 2002. A recovery strategy for the bird was supposed to be posted three years ago.

That still hasn't happened.

"The truth is it's an incredibly complex process to get through," said Andrew Boyne, who leads the Species at Risk recovery unit in Atlantic Canada.

Many areas are working to protect the bird, and in those areas plover numbers are rebuilding. But there is no overall strategy, and in places where little or no work is happening, numbers are actually decreasing.

The recovery strategy would identify what needs to be done, including the critical habitat the endangered shorebirds need to survive.

Most of the delay is because of consultation, Boyne said. About 1,000 private landowners in Atlantic Canada and Quebec may have critical habitat on their property and have to be notified, he said. Boyne said letters are about to go out.

The plan's in the mail

Two years ago, when CBC News contacted Environment Canada on the same issue, letters were also about to be mailed. So why the delay?

Boyne said his team has faced a big challenge in tracking down who the landowners are for around 200 beaches where the birds are thought to breed.

"Each site you've got multiple landowners, and then you've got to deal with trying to go through registries to figure out who owns what, and some provinces that's easier than the other," Boyne said.

While some areas are failing, efforts in others are helping the bird to keep up. The current estimate is that there are 460 eastern piping plovers, 50 birds short of the recovery goal.

A draft recovery strategy to protect eastern piping plovers is in place, and many of its elements are already in place. Boyne expects the official, full strategy will be posted by the end of this year.