Judge orders rethink of preservation plan for endangered piping plovers on East Coast – Halifax

A federal judge has ordered Ottawa to rethink its strategy to preserve an endangered shorebird.

In a decision released yesterday, Justice Richard Southcott sent the piping plover recovery plan back to the federal environment minister for “reconsideration.”

The judge wrote that federal lawyers had failed to “intelligibly respond” to the concerns raised by Nature Nova Scotia and the East Coast Environmental Law Association about the plan approved by the minister in 2022.

The plaintiffs argued Ottawa’s system of protecting specific sections of beaches in Atlantic Canada and Quebec was confusing and vague — and they asked the minister to go back to protecting entire beaches as piping plover habitat.

Piping plovers are small shorebirds that nest primarily on sand, gravel or cobblestone beaches.

The court heard that there are only between 170 to 190 nesting pairs left, well below the 2022 plan’s goal of 310 pairs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2025.