Judge orders rethink of preservation plan for endangered piping plovers on East Coast [Video]

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

In a decision released Monday, 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 provide a clear response 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 (minister’s) decision is unreasonable in that it does not intelligibly respond to the principal concerns raised by the applicants … through the public consultation process,” wrote Southcott, in ordering the quashing of the plan.

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.

The federal government has …