Daily Herald opinion: Preserve and protect: Volunteer efforts nurture survival of suburban plovers and prairie

You don’t see birth announcements in many newspapers these days, let alone headlines announcing the news — unless, of course, the new arrivals involve a sitting vice president or a Hollywood celebrity.

But new additions to federally endangered piping plover families, well, that’s news as well — and for good reason: They’re proof that protecting habitats and species in decline pays off.

Plover parents Pepper and Blaze welcomed three new chicks on Saturday and then a fourth Sunday on Waukegan Beach, where they have returned to nest since 2023.

Lake County Audubon Society president Carolyn Lueck watched the last two chicks hatch. “I think the only word you can use is magical,” she told the Chicago Tribune.

Magical, indeed. But we must remember that the magic gets a behind-the-scenes assist from Sharing Our Shore — Waukegan, a partnership between the Lake County Audubon Society and the city of Waukegan, and others who are fighting for the survival of the migrating shorebirds.

Plovers nest in three regions of North America. Those who nest along the Atlantic coast and along the rivers and lakes of the Northern Great Plains are considered threatened. But the plovers who return to the shores of the Great Lakes are endangered, meaning those who work to protect them go to great lengths to keep the birds and their celebrated offspring safe.

In June, our Mick Zawislak reported that a nest with four eggs — the result of Blaze pairing with a male named Pippin — had washed away in a storm.

That might have been the end of the story. But volunteers rushed to the beach and recovered the eggs, which were taken first to Lincoln Park Zoo for emergency care and then transferred to the Detroit Zoo, where they hatched.

“The eggs had been battered by wind, waves, rain, and cold temperatures,” Lueck said at the time. “Simply finding them was incredible. The possibility that they might survive seemed almost unimaginable.”

These volunteers — and others like them — are the heroes of suburban conservation efforts. And our Barbara Vitello reported on another worthy project this week as well: Citizens for Conservation’s efforts to restore native tall prairie grasslands on the 44-acre Grigsby Prairie in Barrington Hills.

Their work protects biodiverse habitats and helps to mitigate flood and drought damage. But volunteers also preserve a sadly shrinking ecological resource.

Illinois once had 22 million acres of prairie land, according to Dr. Abigail Derby Lewis, executive director of Citizens for Conservation. Today, only 0.01% of that remains.

The work that CFC and other groups do provides a link to our prairie past and creates natural havens in a suburban landscape often dominated by housing developments, strip malls, office buildings and industrial parks.

We’re grateful for their commitment and the work of so many others in preserving pockets of our prairie past and protecting the species — including Lake County’s piping plovers — that our make shorelines and nature preserves places to cherish.