Beachgoers aren\u2019t the only ones enjoying Jacob Riis Park this summer \u2014 the piping plovers are as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just so much to love about this little bird and so much to learn from them as well,\u201d said Chris Allieri.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Chris Allieri\u2019s NYC Plover Project helps to give an endangered species of bird a safe place to nest while they stay on city beaches
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Allieri\u2019s father loved watching birds and keeping a list of his findings
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Allieri and his volunteers ask beachgoers to avoid plover habitats while also teaching them about the bird<\/p>\n
He is the founder and executive director of the NYC Plover Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the endangered birds during their stay in the city. Scientists said there are about 8,000 of them left in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe piping plover is especially fragile for a lot of reasons,\u201d Allieri said. \u201cI mean, we have rising seas because of climate change. We have less and less beach because of beach erosion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Protecting the environment has long been a calling for the Brooklyn Heights resident. His father was an avid bird watcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father\u2019s first, like, scrawling of a piping plover\u2026 he called \u2018The Big Guy,\u2019\u201d Allieri said. \u201cI think that, like, my dad\u2019s, like, love of birds, like, in some ways, like just planted a seed without even me really knowing it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Decades later, during the pandemic lockdown, Allieri found his first piping plover. He was at Fort Tilden.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, they exist and they\u2019re here,\u2019\u201d Allieri said. \u201cAnd then I saw dogs off-leash, people up in the dunes. There were no signs. There was no fences.\u201d<\/p>\n
He channeled his fury into action. In the last six years, hundreds of his volunteers have stationed themselves outside protected plover nesting areas on the city\u2019s beaches.<\/p>\n
They also run an information booth during the summer at Jacob Riis Park. The organization worked with city and federal officials to put up signs.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all with the goal of steering visitors away from the birds\u2019 protected habitats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like the perfect opportunity to be able to help birds and also enjoy being out here at the beach in a place that\u2019s really special to me,\u201d said Ambika Thoreson, a volunteer with the NYC Plover Project.<\/p>\n
Allieri is now writing a book all about the bird that changed his life. And though his dad is no longer around, Allieri said he knows he would be right there alongside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I learned one thing from my parents, it is this, it is like: \u2018Be the change you want to see in the world,\u2019\u201d Allieri said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what my father did each and every day of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
For hatching an initiative to protect the city\u2019s piping plovers, Chris Allieri is our New Yorker of the Week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beachgoers aren\u2019t the only ones enjoying Jacob Riis Park this summer \u2014 the piping plovers are as well.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[7914,25,128,7913,9,24,7911,12,63,7912,129,131,130,27,200],"class_list":["post-294251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-app-new-yorker-of-the-week","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bronx","tag-chelsea-katz","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-yorker-of-the-week","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-pat-kiernan","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}