A high school student in Hull is working on a creative way to help save the Piping Plover
"Living in a coastal community, you get to learn about and want to take care of all the flora and fauna around you. Common sightings include animals and plants such as Piping Plovers, dune grass, crustaceans, different gulls, seals, and fish. These are all the things that make Hull the beautiful town it is and have helped me become who I am.
I joined the Green Team (an in-school program that empowers students and teachers to help the environment) in middle school to help with issues that I saw around town that I knew weren't right. By the time I started seventh grade, I noticed the installation of fencing around the dunes due to the Piping Plovers being a threatened species. This fencing would have signs near it saying don’t go up onto the dunes, and try and keep people away. During that summer, I saw multiple people still going up onto the dunes and disturbing the nesting space. I thought, there needs to be a further explanation as to why people can’t go up onto the dunes.
When I got to high school, I talked to my Green Team advisor about this. I started spouting ideas about creating informational signs that could include the artwork of students at my school that would both get them interested in and raise awareness about our Piping Plovers.
My goal was to create eye-catching signs that would be more graphic and include tidbits of information concerning Piping Plovers and the sand dunes. It is important to teach adults and children why the dunes should be left undisturbed.
My advisor then connected me with our town's conservation committee to discuss the addition of new signs, and they agreed. Next steps for this project are to create the signs and work with the town and Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird team on ways to install these signs at the entrances of each beach. Hopefully, these will help restore the plovers' natural nesting patterns and increase their population." —Scarlett A.
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