This past summer the town of Orleans, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod was obliged to close its beaches to off-road vehicles because of piping plover nesting. The bird, an endangered shore bird, had built nests on a beach corridor used by the recreational vehicles. The beach area remained closed for nearly a month. The town’s business community believed that because of the beach closing it lost a great deal of tourist revenues.

Now the town is considering applying for a federal Section 10 permit, which would allow it to harass the birds so they would not make their nests on the off-road vehicle corridor. In some cases under the Section 10 permit, “limited incidental takes” would be allowed. In other words, the birds could be killed.

In order to receive a Section 10 permit, the town would have to ensure the federal government that the species as a whole would not be harmed by efforts to remove them from the off-road vehicle corridor on the town’s beaches. One strategy the town is considering is a concurrent effort to eradicate some of the piping plovers’ main predators such as skunks and foxes, which raid the birds’ nests. This might help to boost the overall piping plover population.