Posted on 09/16/2002 10:05:50 AM PDT by cogitator
Critical Habitat Designation for Piping Plover
WASHINGTON, DC, September 12, 2002 (ENS) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has designated critical habitat for the Northern Great Plains population of piping plover, a threatened shorebird.
The designation includes 183,422 acres of habitat and 1,207.5 river miles in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Designated areas of critical habitat include prairie alkali wetlands and surrounding shoreline; river channels and associated sandbars and islands; reservoirs and inland lakes and their shorelines, peninsulas and islands. These areas provide primary courtship, nesting, foraging, sheltering, brood rearing and dispersal habitat for piping plovers.
"The Service designated only those lands that we determined were essential to the plover's conservation based on the best scientific information currently available," said Ralph Morgenweck, the USFWS director for the Mountain-Prairie region. "We will continue working cooperatively with landowners to conserve prairie habitat and prairie species including the piping plover."
Critical habitat identifies specific geographic areas that are essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species and which may require special management considerations. Its designation affects activities where federal funding or a federal permit are involved.
The USFWS excluded a total of 13,154.5 acres and 130.5 river miles that had been proposed as critical habitat for the piping plover in June 2001. The North Dakota National Guard property on Lake Coe was excluded because the Camp Grafton Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan provides enough benefits for piping plovers, the USFWS said.
The agency also excluded 15 alkali lakes and wetlands in North Dakota and Montana after additional review of all of the data found they did not meet the survey criteria for numbers of times birds were found at sites. Nelson Reservoir was excluded because a Memorandum of Understanding between the Bureau of Reclamation, the USFWS and local irrigation districts, and a biological opinion are in place to help manage and conserve piping plovers.
Lake Francis Case was removed because additional information obtained during the comment period indicated piping plovers did not nest in this area. Also, operations of this lake make the availability of habitat during the nesting season very limited.
The area designated along the Platte River was reduced by 23 miles and the Niobrara River was reduced by nine miles after review of additional information received during the comment period.
A description of the critical habitat designation, including maps, is available at: http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/pipingplover
It would be a fun time and a great way to eliminate what has apparantly become an expensive pest to the surrounding communities.
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