The re-establishment of Canada’s most important and successful breeding ground for the endangered Great Lakes piping plover alongside the 2 million beach goers who inundate Wasaga’s beaches each year has been an extraordinary accomplishment. 

This precarious coexistence has only been possible because the bird's habitat enjoyed extraordinary, double-layered protection: 

Both intensive, conservation-focused stewardship by provincial parks staff, under the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, as part of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park; and 

daunting, quasi-criminal penalties under the provincial Endangered Species Act. 

By removing both these essential layers of protection within the space of just a few months, the Ontario government has created an imminent threat to the Wasaga breeding ground’s survival, and thus to the survival and recovery of Canada’s entire Great Lakes piping plover population.

While the Town of Wasaga Beach has tried to give the appearance of imitating the work of provincial park experts, none of those activities, nor the town’s new bylaws and policies, could plausibly be described as a substitute for the formidable........

© National Observer