NASA coastal stabilization study on imperiled shorebirds

Our research out here at NASA Wallops Flight Facility is to help them in their near and long term planning for shoreline stabilization. And in particular, how do those efforts impact shorebird species of concern to our state and federal agencies. Our research is focused on three species, the piping plover the red knot, and the black-bellied plover. The first two piping plovers and red knots are federally protected, are threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act. And the third, the black-bellied plover is not a federally listed species, but it's one that we're concerned about due to declining numbers. We actually know very little about how when you move sand around or you put rocks on the beach or you put rocks offshore. How does that change the elevation of the island? How does it change the prey that we find on the beaches? And then the birds are here to forage and feed themselves before they migrate on to their breeding grounds or before they start to breed here. And we are not sure how all of these efforts change the prey base. And so that's really the big question so that when NASA and places again around the world are trying to make these decisions, they need to do it in a way that it doesn't harm the birds that we're seeking to manage and conserve. To research the birds that we're looking at. We go out and we do surveys to look at kind of the abundance and diversity of the birds that are coming through here. And then we will collect our core samples to take that back and analyze the prey that the birds are finding on the beach to eat while they're passing through. In our core samples, when we bring them back to the lab to analyze them, we're finding a lot of blue mussels, clams, insect larva, worms, and crustaceans. I really enjoy the field work. I love being out on the beach, surveying the birds, being able to identify them. And I think we put together a really nice crew this year. So getting to know them has been a really great part of it. We often get the question of why is all of this effort being undertaken to protect these three species of migratory birds? And really, our job is to find that balance so that NASA can continue their operations, but they can do so in a way that doesn't harm the wildlife that is here, that we as a society have said that we want to protect for future generations.