Saving the Piping Plovers One Bottle At a Time
By Hanna VanDuzenMichigan Wine Month may have come to a close, but this limited edition wine still thrives throughout the rest of summer. Dune Bird Winery in Northport launched a limited-edition Pink Plover Rosé in collaboration with Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes in efforts to save the endangered Piping Plover. A launch party was held at the winery in early May, featuring live music, friends, the new wine release, education about the plovers, and lots of fun.
The Piping Plover is a bird near and dear to our hearts in Northern Michigan. If you aren’t familiar with the precious species, here’s a quick lesson. Great Lakes piping plovers are small, migratory shorebirds that are protected by federal law. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore also happens to provide the largest, high-quality Plover habitat in the Great Lakes, with almost half of the population nesting within the Lakeshore. These adorable birds have unfortunately lived on the Endangered Species List since 1986.