Stupidity could cost access

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I heard about this over the weekend. This is the kind of thing that will close this prime strip of fishing area to vehicles........

Driver Faces $25,000 Fine For Killing Endangered Bird
Conservationists Discover Damage To Piping Plover Sanctuary

Police are looking for an off-road vehicle driver who disturbed a South County sanctuary for the endangered piping plover.

A worker with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found a male piping plover last weekend that appeared to have been run over by a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Technicians later determined a similar vehicle had driven through a roped-off area, tearing down signs and fencing designed to protect a nesting pair of the birds.

Piping plovers are endangered and federally protected. They have been nesting in protected areas on South County beaches for the past 12 years. Certain beaches have been off-limits to people since April, when the nesting season began.

The driver faces a $25,000 fine for the plover's death.

Piping plovers are distinguished by a black ring around their necks.