An uproar began a few weeks ago in Barnegat Light, after work crews cleared 3 acres of beach and dune vegetation to the north of Sixth Street as part of a federally funded habitat project for the endangered piping plover shorebirds that nest there.

Biologist Todd Pover of Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey is the point person for what has been a joint effort by several agencies, including the state and federal Fish and Wildlife Service and Rutgers University, to complete a habitat…