Congressman Frank LoBiondo, Refuge Supervisor Janet Kennedy and Refuge Manager Howard Schlegel cut the ribbon at the new Two Mile Beach Unit Visitor Contact Station (photo by Heidi Hanlon, 4/16/07).

Representative Frank LoBiondo and representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service attended a ribbon cutting at the Two Mile Beach Unit of Cape May National Wildlife Refuge. The purpose of the event was to celebrate the opening of the new visitor contact station and the improvement of beach habitat for breeding shorebirds such as the federally-listed piping plover.

In 1999, a portion of the U.S. Coast Guard Loran Support Unit property was transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Many changes have occurred on the site since the transfer. Eleven vacant Coast Guard buildings and old parking areas were demolished and the sites were restored to natural habitat planted with native vegetation. The new visitor contact station replaced an over-sized, energy-inefficient building that was acquired in the property transfer. New refuge displays and interpretive panels have been installed to educate the public.

The refuge's 0.6-mile-long portion of Atlantic coast beach is closed between April 1 and September 30 each year to provide undisturbed feeding, resting, and breeding habitat for migratory shorebirds. In 2006 a pair of piping plovers successfully raised and fledged a chick on the refuge for the first time.

Creation of the beach overwash, which is intended to improve nesting opportunities on the refuge's beach for shorebirds, was a multi-partner project. Refuge staff worked closely with the Philadelphia District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife, NJDEP Division of Land Use Regulation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's New Jersey Field Office.