A piping plover walks along Higgins Beach in Scarborough in April. Derek Davis / Portland Press Herald

The Scarborough Town Council will consider revisions to the town’s piping plover ordinance next week.

The amendments, expected to be up for a vote at the council’s Nov. 6 meeting, would expand protections for the birds and one other endangered species found on Scarborough’s beaches — least terns — between April 1 and Labor Day.

The amendments would more clearly define what recreational activities are prohibited in proximity to the birds’ nesting areas and add new activities that were not commonplace when the ordinance was created, such as flying drones. Fines would also go up from a minimum of $50 and a maximum of $250, to a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $500, bringing them in line with the town’s animal control ordinances.

The amendments stem from ones proposed to the council in February that were then reviewed by a group of stakeholders, which included residents of Higgins Beach and Pine Point, members of the Dog Owners of Greater Scarborough and the community’s volunteer beach monitors.

Volunteer beach monitors have said the changes to the ordinance broaden the restricted activities and makes them clearer, allowing them to more effectively educate beachgoers.

“As volunteers, we spend a lot of time on the beach in conversation with beachgoers,” said Glennis Chabot, a volunteer beach monitor, at an Oct. 16 public hearing. “We also want to protect the public from the state and federal consequences that would result if they should harm a bird. By spelling out some of the (prohibited) activities in the ordinance, this allows education.”

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Chabot also noted some states close their beaches when endangered birds are nesting, and the fact that Scarborough doesn’t do so speaks volumes about the community’s recognition and respect for piping plovers and their habitat.

“The plovers and the beachgoers coexist very well on our Scarborough beaches,” she said. “I think the changes to the ordinance will even help that further along.”

Resident Alyson Bristol said at the Oct. 16 public hearing that she is “not in favor of changing an ordinance if it cannot be enforced.”

The ordinance states that it “may be enforced by any officer of the Scarborough Police Department,” unchanged from its original iteration. The amendments do add references to federal laws but states that those are enforced by federal officials.

“An ordinance is a law,” Bristol said. “If you’re going to create an ordinance or rewrite an ordinance, it should be something that is enforced, not just an educational tool.”

She also suggested the proposed end date of Labor Day could be too far out as least terns did not nest on Higgins Beach this year and piping plovers finished fledging in late July.

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