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The seasonal rise and retreat of the Missouri River once created lush backwater lakes and wetlands, islands and sandbars — all critical elements of biodiversity. These shifting waters created habitat for many migratory birds to raise their young, including the interior least tern and piping plover, which depend on sandbars created when waters retreat for nesting.
Lewis says these sandbars “choked” and “confined” the river to a narrow channel, and that hundreds of birds nested there. One of those birds, the interior least tern, was new to science. When Lewis collected two on Aug. 5, 1804, he used 1,000 words to describe its delicate features.
These sandbars, so vital for tern nesting, barely exist today. After Lewis and Clark’s journey, Americans launched plans to make it easier to navigate the Missouri River, a vital corridor for commerce. Work first began in 1838. Since then, channels have been deepened and dams built.
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In Their Own Words... |
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"This bird is very noysey when flying which it dose exttreemly swift. … It has two notes one like the squaking of a small pig only to reather a high kee, the other kit’-tee’, -kit’tee’ as near as letters can express the second."
~ Lewis | | About 90 percent of sandbar habitat was lost. The interior least tern’s population plummeted. It was declared endangered in 1985. The piping plover, which often shares its nesting sites, is listed as threatened.
The Conservancy is working along the Missouri, Niobrara and Platte rivers — the interior least tern’s summer nesting grounds — to protect priority species and restore natural habitat for future generations. | 
