VICTORY! Court Upholds Critical Habitat Designation for Piping Plovers
In a victory for the rare Piping Plover, in August a federal judge ruled in favor of designating critical habitat areas for wintering Piping Plovers in North Carolina in compliance with the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) had designated portions of North Carolina's Outer Banks, including Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, as critical habitat for wintering Piping Plovers, but in 2009 a consortium of off-road vehicle groups and two North Carolina counties filed a lawsuit seeking to dismiss the designations. National Audubon Society and Defenders of Wildlife, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, intervened in the case on behalf of the Interior Department and USFWS.
Listed as a federally threatened species under the ESA since 1986, the Piping Plover relies on portions of North Carolina's Outer Banks for nesting, migration, and wintering habitat. Cape Hatteras is one of the few places on the east coast that hosts Piping Plover activity throughout the year.
Piping Plovers are imperiled by habitat loss and human disturbance, including the impacts of off-road vehicle use. Critical habitat designation is an important tool for the conservation and recovery of endangered and threatened species. It helps educate the public to the presence of important habitat for imperiled species; it helps focus federal, state, and private conservation and management efforts in designated areas; and it requires that "federal agencies ensure that actions they authorize, fund, or carry out are not likely to adversely modify designated critical habitat."
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