Island. The Canadian Nature Federation considered the conference an excellent one. -

In celebration of our 20th anniversary the Canadian Nature Federation again visited the Island for its annual conference in June of 1989. This time it was co-hosted by the Society and the Island Nature Trust. Piping Plovers, cormorants, Scenic Heritage Roads, seals, and wildflower tours were on the venue. Of course, there was another lobster feast!

AFFILIATIONS

It may surprise some of our members when they read that our Society affiliated with the Canadian Audubon Society which, shortly thereafter, changed its name to the Canadian Nature Federation.

A close association exists between our Society and the Island Nature Trust. A fairly large number of people are members of both groups and some of the Natural History Society members were active in helping the Island Nature Trust get organized in 1979. Using profits generated at the CNF conference, the Society made the first large donation received by the Trust for its inaugural property purchase, the Beauregarde Property located in Blooming Point on Deroche Pond. The two groups have been mutually defensive against over-development in natural areas and protective when protection was needed. The Society has the pleasure of appointing one member to the General Council of the Trust.

In 1981, the Society affiliated with the Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain.

PIPING PLOVER

A fine example of affiliations in action is the plight of the endangered Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) which would have been even more precarious had NHS fellow member Winifred Cairns not chosen the Piping Plover for research and made it the subject of her thesis for her master's degree. Subsequent extended observations on our Island beaches provided her with more photographs and data to begin to get the message out that a little shore bird in Atlantic Canada was barely holding its own against all manner of beach users in addition to destruction of nests by storms, predators, and even vehicles.

The logical place to seek cooperation was our National Park which has the Island's largest Piping Plover population and by and far the largest congregation of human beings on Island beaches. But plovers and people do not mix well. A fence to close off a sandspit in the nesting season met with strong disapproval from tourist operators. Intervention by the Society and its affiliate, the CNF, led to a national news story highlighting the issue. The Piping Plover story was told from coast to coast by television and people were interested.

Winifred, backed by by Rosemary Curley and others, used the publicity as leverage to persuade objectors that it would be to their advantage to have the plovers protected from intrusion in the nesting season except for walks guided by Park's personnel. When Winifred left the province, her work was continued by student survey crews supervised by Joyce MacLeod, Rosemary Curley, and Dan McAskill. In 1987 the Natural History Society assisted in planning and hosting the Tourism and Nature workshop which emphasized the value of wildlife, particularly birding, to tourism. In 1988 the Society used funds from the Island Conservation Assistance Program to join with the Atlantic Center for the Environment to co-produce a poster on the Piping Plover. Also in 1988, Winifred

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