Stephen Totterman from Coastal Defenders Network said the National Parks and Wildlife Service's response to his concerns about 4WD impacts on the pied oystercatcher population on the beaches south of Ballina is 'unsatisfactory'.

Stephen Totterman from Coastal Defenders Network says fatalities are mounting for locally endangered pied oystercatchers at South Ballina Beach as authorities fail to act.

With Ballina Shire Council, Jali people, MP Tamara Smith and concerned residents united about the need to do something about 4WD-related destruction on the southern beaches, Crown Lands may be the missing part of the puzzle.

The Patchs Beach 4WD entrance is now blocked with a bar and has concrete blocks next to it, but continuing bad behaviour from some beach visitors further south has led to a police crackdown on 4WDs from Richmond Police, in conjunction with Richmond Valley Council Rangers.

After weeks of sustained pressure, councillors at the last Ballina Shire Council meeting voted unanimously to close the 4WD access track at Patchs Beach. They also agreed to write to the state government to request that South Ballina Beach be closed to the general public driving 4WD vehicles.

Following last week's story about 4WDs damaging wild beaches south of Ballina, Echonetdaily has received more information about threats to this crucial habitat for the endangered pied oystercatcher.

The black and white birds with the long red beaks and legs are telling, but so very quietly. Taxonomists call them Haematopus longirostris. Bundjalung, the pipi-birds, leading people to beds of shellfish. Anglos, pied oystercatchers or, from the 19th century, ‘sea pies’.

School students on the Tweed Coast are helping authorities protect endangered shorebirds from foxes.