U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Critical Habitat Designation for the Piping Plover

Tuesday, July 10, 2001 Part II Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service 50 CFR Part 17 Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Determinations of Critical Habitat for Wintering Piping Plovers; Final Rule VerDate 11<MAY>2000 11:26 Jul 09, 2001 Jkt 194001 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4717 Sfmt 4717 E:\FR\FM\10JYR2.SGM pfrm06 PsN: 10JYR2 36038 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 132 / Tuesday, July 10, 2001 / Rules and Regulations DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ADDRESSES: The complete Piping plovers winter in coastal areas administrative record for this rule is on of the United States from North Carolina Fish and Wildlife Service file at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to Texas. They also winter along the Service, Ecological Services Field coast of eastern Mexico and on 50 CFR Part 17 Office, TAMUCC, Box 338, 6300 Ocean Caribbean islands from Barbados to RIN 1018–AG13 Drive, Corpus Christi, Texas, 78412. Cuba and the Bahamas (Haig 1992). The You may view the complete file for this international piping plover winter Endangered and Threatened Wildlife rule, by appointment, during normal censuses of 1991 and 1996 located only and Plants; Final Determination of business hours at the above address. 63 percent and 42 percent of the Critical Habitat for Wintering Piping Copies of the final economic analysis estimated number of breeding birds, Plovers and information regarding this critical respectively (Haig and Plissner 1993, habitat designation are available on the Plissner and Haig 1997). Of the birds AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Internet at http://plover.fws.gov. located on the United States wintering Interior. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: grounds during these two censuses, 89 ACTION: Final rule. Allan Strand, Acting Field Supervisor, percent were found on the Gulf Coast and 8 percent were found on the SUMMARY: We, the Fish and Wildlife at the above address (telephone 361/ Atlantic Coast. Information from Service (Service), designate 137 areas 994–9005; facsimile 361/994–8262; observation of color-banded piping along the coasts of North Carolina, email [email protected]). plovers indicates that the winter ranges South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: of the breeding populations overlap to a Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Background significant degree. Therefore, the source Texas as critical habitat for the breeding population of a given wintering population of the piping Description wintering individual cannot be plover (Charadrius melodus). This The piping plover (Charadrius determined in the field unless it has includes approximately 2,891.7 melodus), named for its melodic mating been banded or otherwise marked. kilometers (km) (1,798.3 miles (mi)) of call, is a small, pale-colored North Piping plovers begin arriving on the mapped shoreline and approximately American shorebird. It weighs 43–63 wintering grounds in July, with some 66,881 hectares (ha) (165,211 acres (ac)) grams (1.5–2.25 ounces) and is 17–18 late-nesting birds arriving in September. of mapped area along the Gulf and centimeters (cm) (about 8 inches) long A few individuals can be found on the Atlantic coasts and along margins of (Haig 1992). Its light sand-colored wintering grounds throughout the year, interior bays, inlets, and lagoons. plumage blends in well with beaches but sightings are rare in late May, June, The population of piping plovers that and sand flats, part of its primary and early July. Migration is poorly breeds in the Great Lakes States is listed habitat. During the breeding season, the understood, but most piping plovers as endangered, while all other piping legs are bright orange, and the short probably migrate non-stop from interior plovers are threatened species under the stout bill is orange with a black tip. breeding areas to wintering grounds Endangered Species Act of 1973, as There are two single dark bands, one (Haig 1992). However, concentrations of amended (Act). All piping plovers are around the neck and one across the spring and fall migrants have been considered threatened species under the forehead between the eyes. Plumage and observed along the Atlantic Coast Act when on their wintering grounds. leg color help distinguish this bird from (USFWS 1996). Critical habitat identifies specific areas other plovers. In winter, the bill turns Behavioral observations of piping that are essential to the conservation of black, the legs remain orange but pale, plovers on the wintering grounds a listed species, and that may require and the black plumage bands on the suggest that they spend the majority of special management considerations or head and neck are lost. Chicks have their time foraging (Nicholls and protection. The primary constituent speckled gray, buff, and brown down, a Baldassarre 1990b; Drake 1999a, 1999b). elements for the piping plover wintering black beak, orange legs, and a white Primary prey for wintering plovers habitat are those habitat components collar around the neck. Juveniles includes polychaete marine worms, that are essential for the primary resemble wintering adults and obtain various crustaceans, insects, and biological needs of foraging, sheltering, their adult plumage the spring after they occasionally bivalve mollusks (Nicholls and roosting, and only those areas fledge (Prater et al. 1977). 1989; Zonick and Ryan 1995), that they containing these primary constituent peck from on top or just beneath the Range and Biology elements within the designated surface. Foraging usually takes place on boundaries are considered critical Piping plovers breed in three discrete moist or wet sand, mud, or fine shell. In habitat. The primary constituent areas of North America: The Northern some cases, this substrate may be elements are found in coastal areas that Great Plains, the Great Lakes, and the covered by a mat of blue-green algae. support intertidal beaches and flats Atlantic Coast. The Northern Great When not foraging, plovers can be found (between annual low tide and annual Plains population historically bred from roosting, preening, bathing, in high tide) and associated dune systems Alberta to Ontario, Canada, south to aggressive encounters (with other piping and flats above annual high tide. Kansas and Colorado. While Great Lakes plovers and other species), and moving Section 7 of the Act requires Federal breeding sites once ranged throughout among available habitat locations agencies to ensure that actions they the Great Lakes region, recent nesting (Zonick and Ryan 1996). authorize, fund, or carry out are not records are limited to Michigan and The habitats used by wintering birds likely to adversely modify designated Wisconsin. Atlantic Coast breeding sites include beaches, mud flats, sand flats, critical habitat. As required by section 4 are found from Newfoundland, Canada, algal flats, and washover passes (areas of the Act, we considered economic and south to North Carolina. Generally, where breaks in the sand dunes result other relevant impacts prior to making piping plovers favor open sand, gravel, in an inlet). Individual plovers tend to a final decision on what areas to or cobble beaches for breeding. Breeding return to the same wintering sites year designate as critical habitat. sites are generally found on islands, lake after year (Nicholls and Baldassarre DATES: This final rule is effective August shores, coastal shorelines, and river 1990b, Drake 1999a). Wintering plovers 9, 2001. margins. are dependent on a mosaic of habitat VerDate 11<MAY>2000 16:13 Jul 09, 2001 Jkt 194001 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\10JYR2.SGM pfrm07 PsN: 10JYR2 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 132 / Tuesday, July 10, 2001 / Rules and Regulations 36039 patches, and move among these patches are regionally variable with some areas and Ontario, Canada) and as threatened depending on local weather and tidal experiencing declining populations. elsewhere within its range. The listing conditions. One study by Drake (1999a) Breeding census results show a marked includes piping plovers breeding in monitored the movement of 48 piping decline of the population breeding in Canada, with their status under the Act plovers in south Texas, for one season. the Northern Great Plains of the United determined by whether they breed in She found, using 95% of the States (Plissner and Haig 1997). the watershed of the Great Lakes documented locations, that these birds Overall winter habitat loss is difficult (endangered) or elsewhere (threatened). had a mean home range of 1,262 ha to document; however, a variety of All piping plovers on migratory routes (3,117 ac). Drake (1999) also noted that human-caused disturbance factors have outside of the Great Lakes watershed or the mean linear distance moved per been noted that may affect plover on their wintering grounds are individual bird was 3,294 m (2 mi) for survival or utilization of wintering considered threatened. We did not the fall through the spring of 1997– habitat (Nicholls and Baldassarre 1990a, designate critical habitat for the species 1998. Haig and Plissner 1993). These factors at that time. In late February, piping plovers begin include recreational activities In 1986, two U.S. recovery teams were leaving the wintering grounds to migrate (motorized and pedestrian), inlet and appointed to develop recovery plans for back to breeding sites. Northward shoreline stabilization, dredging of the piping plovers breeding in the migration peaks in late March, and by inlets that can affect spit (a small point Atlantic Coast States and those breeding late May most birds have left the of land, especially sand, running into in the Great Lakes/Northern Great Plains wintering grounds (Eubanks 1994). water) formation, beach maintenance region. We published those plans in and renourishment (renourishing the 1988 (USFWS 1988a, 1988b). In 1994, Population Status beach with sand that has been lost to we began to revise the plan for the Great In recent decades, piping plover erosion), and pollution (e.g., oil spills) Lakes/Northern Great Plains plovers by populations have declined drastically, (USFWS 1996).

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