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A small bird stands on rocky sand.

Photo: ShutterGlow.com via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0

National
Victory

Piping Plover Lawsuit

December 4, 2007

On December 4, 2007, Ecojustice launched a lawsuit in Federal Court challenging the federal government’s failure to identify critical habitat in a recovery strategy for the Piping Plover, an increasingly endangered shorebird found in eastern Canada.

Nature Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, ForestEthics, Environmental Defence and Western Canada Wilderness Committee, represented by Sierra Legal Defence Fund, argued that by neglecting to identify critical habitat in recovery planning documents for the Piping Plover, the federal government failed to adequately implement the Species at Risk Act.

Shortly after the lawsuit was launched, the federal government responded with a revised recovery strategy that identified critical habitat – thus granting a reprieve for the Piping Plover.