Download Slide 1

Beneficial Management
Practices for Saskatchewan
Species at Risk:
Piping Plover
Endangered
• Pale, sand-colored back
& head
• White breast & rump
• Orange legs & bill with
black tip on bill
• Single black band on
breast and forehead
• Clear-toned “pipe” call
Randy McCulloch
• Nest in sparsely vegetated, moist,
gravelly or sandy shorelines along
saline or prairie lakes
• Eat freshwater invertebrates along the
shoreline
• Located in the central and southern
portions of the province
• Status: Endangered
• Declined due habitat loss, changes in
water levels, human use of beaches and
predation
• 1,420 birds in Saskatchewan
Beneficial Management Practices
Grazing
• Keep livestock away from plover nesting
sites during breeding season
• Graze shorelines only in late summer or
fall or possibly early spring
Altering Waterbodies
• Avoid draining wetlands
• Avoid constructing dams or dugouts that
divert water away from natural
waterbodies
• Avoid constructing dams or diversions
that result in flooding during plover
breeding season
Water Level Management
• Provide off-site watering for livestock
• Stagger timing of withdrawal if using
more than one waterbody
• Drawdown water 2-3cm/week in spring
and summer
• Reflood dry waterbody or hardpan
shorelines 2-3 cm/week