Funding for piping plover cut back

Environment Canada has cut the funding it provides to two Maritime groups for protection of the endangered beach bird the piping plover.

Both the Island Nature Trust on P.E.I. and Nature New Brunswick had their funding reduced by about 25 per cent. The money has also arrived much later than usual.

Jackie Waddell, executive director of the Island Nature Trust, told CBC News on Tuesday thatthe federal money is used to hire two summer co-ordinators to manage volunteers who monitor the plovers and their nests on 23 Island beaches.

The cut for the Island Nature Trust, $11,000 from the normal $48,000 grant, means Waddell will have to lay off the lead co-ordinator a month early, which is when the final report would normally be written.

"Of course we need that information to know either how successful we've been in the project [or not]. And also let Canadian Wildlife Service know all of our numbers," said Waddell.

"I'm going to have to take over all the reporting, and it will take me away from other things, Including land acquisition, protecting lands on P.E.I. We are a nature trust or a land trust, and we work to try to protect these areas, and it's just going to really stretch my time."

Waddell hasn't received an explanation from Environment Canada yet for why the group's funding was cut.While Nature New Brunswick received a similar cut to its funding, Bird Studies Canada, the organization that monitors the plovers in Nova Scotia received the entire amount it requested.

CBC News called Environment Canada Tuesday ask why some organizations got full funding, while others were cut, but the department has not yet responded.

There are just 500 piping plovers left in the Maritimes.