Study Shows Piping Clover Population on Fire Island has Doubled Since Hurricane Sandy in 2012

Hurricane Sandy caused a lot of damage to Fire Island and its surrounding areas, but it proved to help piping clovers tremendously.

Since the superstorm hit New York and New Jersey in 2012, the piping clover population on Fire Island’s barrier island has nearly doubled, according to a study published in Ecosphere.

“Hurricane Sandy was obviously very catastrophic for human infrastructure on Fire Island, but on an ecosystem level, it worked wonders,” said Katie Walker, a Virginia Tech graduate student in wildlife conservation.

The storm, which hit Fire Island with considerable damage, caused sand from the oceanside of the island to create sand flats on the bayside. The piping clovers now use these sand flats to nest, which has helped their species grow.

“If reproductive output remains high and plovers continue to nest in these regions, the population will continue to do well, but it definitely will hit a point where it’s going require another large scale disturbance event, another storm,” Walker told the New York Times.

The storm has increased the piping clover population by about 50 percent, the findings discovered by studying aerial photographs of Fire Island taken before and after Hurricane Sandy.

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