The only post to combine piping plovers, New Jersey cats and the constitutional right to nudity

[Lobster Martini]

LM: Finding two articles about piping plovers on the same day was moderately interesting. Finding that the federal government may defend plovers against New Jersey cats was interesting. But a federal court taking away our constitutional right to nudity?

Government May Step in to Save Birds From Cats in Cape May

CAPE MAY, N.J., Aug. 4 (AP) — In most other cities, cats killing birds would not attract much attention. But this is not most other cities.

Cats are as much a part of genteel Cape May culture as rainbow-colored Victorian bed-and-breakfasts, trolley tours and cocktails on the porch at sunset.

But Cape May is also one of the prime bird-watching spots in North America, and the activity is important to the state’s economy. The World Series of Birding is held here each year.

This year in New Jersey, cats are the prime suspects in the deaths of three endangered birds, including piping plovers. With only 115 pairs of plovers left in the state, each death is a big deal to environmentalists.

The federal government may intervene on the side of the birds, drawing mixed reactions here. <snip>

(link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/nyregion/05cats.html)

Piping plover makes comeback

CHARLESTOWN, R.I. - The tiny Atlantic piping plover, a federally protected bird, has given beachgoers headaches for decades.

The species breeds on East Coast beaches during warm weather, which means entire stretches of shoreline can be put off limits just as people want to enjoy the coast.

But today, two decades after the plover was declared a threatened species, biologists are crediting the beach closures, twine barriers and other buffers between birds and humans for a 141 percent increase in the Atlantic piping plover population.

"Those birds have been earned the hard way," said Anne Hecht, who supervises the recovery effort for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The brown-and-white birds breed in tenuous dents of sand just above the high tide line, where their nests can be flooded by storms, targeted by predators and easily damaged by humans. <snip>

At a minimum, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wanted property owners to put up signs and fences marking a 50-foot barrier between people and plovers. Since dogs chase plovers, they had to be kept on a leash or kept off the beach altogether.

Beach buggy enthusiasts were probably hit the hardest. Their off-road vehicles are banned from many plover beaches during nesting season because one stray tire can smoosh an entire brood.

The bans outraged beachgoers. <snip>

The backlash united unlikely groups of beachgoers. While anglers protested the beach buggy restrictions, nudists in Rhode Island sued the federal government for severely curtailing access to their favorite beach.

In the end, a federal judge decided that nude sunbathing was not a constitutionally protected right.

(Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070803/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_piping_plover;_ylt=AnroUWMMIxr6mvb8eWu2y_Ws0NUE)

[More Than A Feeling]

1. You will put pants on me FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!

Wait, what were we talkin' about again? :hippie:

[Lobster Martini]

2. Self delete--3:00 a.m. is no time to try to write humor

[babylonsister]

3. I think you are right, so this is my bookmark. Thanks. nt and rl