Draft Revised Recovery Plan for the Breeding Range of the Northern Great Plains Piping Plover

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In order for piping plover recovery to be assured into the future it is important for management entities to have commitments to provide habitat and to have demonstrated that they can and will implement these commitments into the future. In the breeding range, the flow and sediment dynamics on most of the river systems have been altered such that habitat has been eliminated or the quantity and quality has been drastically reduced. Focused management efforts have attempted to recreate habitat lost by human alterations of river systems. However, some of these efforts have been unsuccessful. Those actions that are most likely to succeed are those actions that increase the dynamic function and capacity of river systems where breeding habitat is created and maintained by natural riverine processes. For river systems to be able to be run to approximate their natural processes, changes to floodplain management and, in some cases water allocation, would need to be addressed so that flows can occur without negative impacts on human infrastructure. Changes in water timing and volume in riverine systems as a result of climate change may also require alterations in water resources and socioeconomic response to river management, requiring novel cooperative solutions. We recommend that surveys be conducted to determine if plovers are present prior to constructing new projects, or modifying or protecting existing projects that may impact piping plovers or coastal habitat function. We recommend following the protocol laid out in Appendix 2W.a of the wintering portion of the plan(Volume II), performing multiple surveys over the course of an entire migration and wintering season. If surveys are not possible, plover use should be assumed if the Primary Constituent Elements for wintering habitat are present. If piping plovers may use the area, projects should be designed so that features necessary for plover wintering use are not impacted. Projects within the wintering grounds should be designed so that the natural dynamic processes of the coastal environment are retained. Overwash events and channel migration should be allowed to create, restore, and enhance piping plover wintering habitat. In general habitat should be protected from new development, or modifications to existing development that stabilize 69 VOLUME/:Draft Revised Recovery Plan for the Breeding Range of the Northern Great Plains Piping Plover(Charadrius melodus)