Mountain-Prairie Region

Piping Plover

Piping Plover Photos courtesy of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission

Designation of Critical Habitat for the Northern Great Plains Population of Piping Plover

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated certain habitats in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska as critical habitat for the Northern Great Plains population of piping plover, and imperiled migratory shorebird.  This designation included 183,422 acres of habitat and 1,207.5 river miles.

Designated areas of critical habitat include prairie alkali wetlands and surrounding shoreline; river channels and associated sandbars and islands; and reservoirs and inland lakes and their sparsely vegetated shorelines, peninsulas, and islands.

These areas provide primary courtship, nesting, foraging, sheltering, brood-rearing and dispersal habitat for piping plovers.

News Release:  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Designates Critical Habitat for the
                            Great Plains Population of Piping Plover

Federal Register Notice: 9/11/2002 Designation of Critical Habitat for the Northern Great Plains Breeding Population of the Piping Plover; Final Rule

Final Environmental Assessment - Proposal of Critical Habitat for the Northern Great Plains Breeding Population of Piping Plovers - June 2002 - (57 pages, 271KB in PDF format)

Economic Analysis of Critical Habitat Designation for the Northern Great Plains Breeding Population of the Piping Plover 12/4/2001 (73 page, 153 KB  PDF format)

Addendum for the Economic Analysis

Maps

• Range Map
• Unit 1  Minnesota  Lake of the Woods
• Unit 1  Montana  Sheridan County
• Unit 2  Montana   Missouri River
• Unit 3  Montana  Fort Peck Reservoir
• Unit 4  Montana  Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge
• Unit 1  North Dakota  Divide and Williams Counties
• Unit 10  North Dakota  Eddy County
• Unit 11  North Dakota  Missouri River and Reservoirs
• Unit 2  North Dakota  Renville, Ward, Mountrail and Burke Counties
• Unit 3  North Dakota  Ward and Mountrail Counties
• Unit 4  North Dakota  McLean County
• Unit 5  North Dakota  McHenry, McLean and Sheridan Counties
• Unit 6  North Dakota  Pierce and Benson Counties
• Unit 7  North Dakota  Burleigh and Kidder Counties
• Unit 8  North Dakota  Stutsman County
• Unit 9  North Dakota Logan and McIntosh Counties
• Unit 1  South Dakota  Missouri River
• Unit 2  South Dakota and Nebraska  Missouri River

Finding of No Significant Impact   Designation of Critical Habitat for the Northern Great Plains
Breeding Population of the Piping Plover

Legal Descriptions of Proposed Critical Habitat Areas - See Federal Register Notice

Draft Environmental Assessment - Proposal of Critical Habitat for Northern Great Plains Breeding Population of Piping Plovers - June 2001 - (43 page, 115KB PDF format)