Status of the Interior Least Tern and Piping Plover in Nebraska

• Description: Prepared for Interstate Task Force on Endangered Species ‎(related to the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program or PRRIP)‎, Colorado Water Congress, Nebraska Water Resources Association, Wyoming Water Development Association Tom Pitts, P.E. Task Force Coordinator
• State: CO
• State: WY
• State: NE
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 9/1/1988
• Author: EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc.
• Title: Status of the Interior Least Tern and Piping Plover in Nebraska ‎(Period of Record through 1986)‎
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

disturbance and predation. This has been demonstrated in a specific case where
a sandpit owner took interest in observing and protecting least terns (Ducey
1982).
Thus, perceptions that water projects and other human developments have been
wholly detrimental to populations of least terns and piping plovers along the
Platte River are not supported by existing information. Neither historical
sighting records nor more recent systematic surveys provide evidence that
breeding populations of least terns or piping plovers have declined along the
Big Bend reach, the Platte River in general, or within the state. Rather,
current information indicates that habitat along the Platte and other rivers in
Nebraska can support far more birds than was previously thought to be the case.
It should be recognized, too, that some aspects of past man- induced change have
benefited terns and plovers, exemplifying the fact that progress in meeting
human needs, and those of wildlife, need not be mutually exclusive.
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