All-formats: New threat for endangered Great Lakes bird

By John Flesher and Mike Householder

John Flesher, correspondent, Traverse City, Michigan, and Mike Householder, video journalist, Detroit, for gaining exclusive all formats access to an already endangered shorebird’s primary nesting area. The AP team documented the plight of the piping plovers being squeezed out by surging Great Lakes waters during this spring’s Midwestern flooding. The package put the birds’ story into the broader context of climate change, explaining that the rising waters result from prolonged heavy rainfall and snowmelt that some experts believe will become a “new normal,” threatening the fragile Great Lakes coastline habitat.