Joe Roman, a conservation biologist and fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, writes for Slate about the endangered piping plover and how the tiny birds relate to preserving coastal habitats. In the wake of devastation at the hands of storms such as Hurricane Sandy, Roman proposes that more attention should be heeded to the manner in which the plover survives on the ever-changing barrier islands off New York and New Jersey. “These birds - threatened by overdevelopment and feral cats, foxes, and crows -- remind us of the way humans used to face the ocean: as nomads, with a light footprint.” Read the story…