Terns & Plovers
Photo credit: Michael Forsberg
It’s a story with a twist, much like the braided river where it begins. Along the lower Platte River in Nebraska, small channels of water continually split and join, creating changing sandbars that provide habitat for least terns and piping plovers. This biologically rich region is home to these endangered and threatened birds. But over time, river flows have been altered by upstream dams, diversions, and developments, causing a loss and degradation of their nesting habitat. Conservation biologists, community volunteers and sand and gravel companies have come together to help shape their questionable destiny.