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CORVALLIS - The Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University, along with several other collaborating agencies, received the "Conservation Project of the Year" award, presented recently at the 70th annual North American Wildlife and Natural Resource Conference.

The award recognized the cooperative efforts of the Western Snowy Plover Working Team, which also includes the Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other groups.

Conservation and recovery work has been under way for a number of years with this small shore bird on the Pacific Coast, which is federally listed as a threatened species.

A range of federal, state and non-governmental agencies have worked on habitat restoration, population inventories, monitoring of nesting success, predator control, public education and nest protection in efforts to help populations of the bird recover. As a result, the numbers of nests and nesting success of the snowy plover have been increasing in recent years.