Piping Plovers Fledge 53 Chicks At Sandy Hook This Summer

HIGHLANDS, NJ — Earlier this summer, many people were dismayed when the National Park Service announced it was canceling the Sandy Hook summer concert series due to the discovery of piping plover nesting grounds at Gateway National Recreation Area, Sandy Hook.

However, this week the federal park service affirmed their decision that canceling the concerts was the right move and that Sandy Hook's piping plovers have wrapped up another successful breeding season — thanks in no small part to being left alone and undisturbed by loud concert music and curious passersby.

As summer 2019 draws to an end, there were a total of 41 nesting piping plover pairs in Sandy Hook, and they hatched 53 chicks, the National Park Service announced. That's a photo of one of Sandy Hook's piping plover chicks above, provided by the federal park agency.

At the beginning of the season, on June 3, a park ranger stumbled across a piping plover nest in close proximity to Lot E at Sandy Hook. Lot E is where the summer concerts have been held every Wednesday night for decades now. The concerts attract thousands of people and feature many local Jersey Shore bands.

But because there were dozens of plover nests scattered throughout the entire park, it made it essentially impossible to find a back-up venue for the concerts, Jane Preziosi of the Sandy Hook Foundation told Patch at the time. The Sandy Hook Foundation is the non-profit that hosts the concerts annually.

State law enforced by the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife prohibits any human activity from taking place within 1,000 meters of a piping plover or its nest.

Also worth noting is that the dunes at Sandy Hook are one of the main nesting grounds for these birds: Over the last 10 years Sandy Hook has consistently supported 40-50 percent of New Jersey's nesting plover pairs, the park service said. Of the 145 chicks that fledged in New Jersey in 2018, 59 were from Sandy Hook nests alone.

Piping plovers are listed not as an endangered species, but a threatened species by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The piping plover suffered after decades of beachfront development in New Jersey destroyed their nesting grounds, usually right on the dunes. New Jersey has taken an extremely aggressive approach to saving the piping plover, even killing foxes in Island Beach State park because they are a natural plover predator.

"The park and the Foundation really tried everywhere to find a place for the concerts. People say the parade grounds, but there's no parking there. We need a space to park 3,000 cars," said Preziosi earlier this summer.

"We understand that these concerts are a 25-year tradition and they are very popular. But this is a threatened species and it's a federal law to protect them," said National Park Service spokeswoman Daphne Yun at the time.

No word yet on whether the Sandy Hook concerts will be resurrected for summer 2020.

The initial Patch report that started it all: Sandy Hook Cancels All Its Summer Concerts Due To Piping Plover