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NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE

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NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE

  • New Mexico Conservation Information System
  • BISON-M
  • NMERT
  • NM CHAT
  • Share with Wildlife
New Mexico State Wildlife Action Plan LogoNew Mexico State Wildlife Action Plan Logo

State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico

New Mexico State Wildlife Action Plan
  • OVERVIEW
  • Species
    • Amphibians
    • Bees
    • Beetles
    • Birds
    • Crustaceans
    • Fish
    • Flies
    • Mammals
    • Molluscs
    • Moths and Butterflies
    • Reptiles
  • Ecoregions
    • Arizona/New Mexico Mountains
    • Chihuahuan Desert
    • Colorado Plateaus
    • High Plains and Tablelands
    • Madrean Archipelago
    • Southern Rocky Mountains
  • Habitats
    • Alpine and Montane Vegetation
    • Aquatic
    • Arroyo Riparian
    • Cliff, Scree & Rock Vegetation
    • Desert Grassland and Scrub
    • Plains-Mesa Grasslands< Back to Habitats List
    • Riparian Woodlands and Wetlands
  • Conservation Opportunity Areas
  • Threats and Conservation Actions
  • Monitoring
  • Climate Change
  • Related Resources

New Mexico State Wildlife Action Plan

  • OVERVIEW
  • Species
    • Amphibians
    • Bees
    • Beetles
    • Birds
    • Crustaceans
    • Fish
    • Flies
    • Mammals
    • Molluscs
    • Moths and Butterflies
    • Reptiles
  • Ecoregions
    • Arizona/New Mexico Mountains
    • Chihuahuan Desert
    • Colorado Plateaus
    • High Plains and Tablelands
    • Madrean Archipelago
    • Southern Rocky Mountains
  • Habitats
    • Alpine and Montane Vegetation
    • Aquatic
    • Arroyo Riparian
    • Cliff, Scree & Rock Vegetation
    • Desert Grassland and Scrub
    • Plains-Mesa Grasslands< Back to Habitats List
    • Riparian Woodlands and Wetlands
  • Conservation Opportunity Areas
  • Threats and Conservation Actions
  • Monitoring
  • Climate Change
  • Related Resources

Piping Plover

Back to Species
Piping Plover
Piping Plover
This Species needs a photo. If you have one you would like to provide, please email it to virginia.seamster@dgf.nm.gov. Include the species name, your name and organization for the photo credit. Thank you!
Scientific Name Charadrius melodus circumcinctus
Category L
Taxon Birds
Climate Change Vulnerability Score Moderately Vulnerable
View on BISON-M

The Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus circumcinctus) is a light grayish-brown bird (17-18 cm [7 in] long; 43-63 g [1.5-2 oz]) with white underparts, orange legs, and black around the neck and on the forehead in the breeding season. It forages for aquatic invertebrates along wet beaches and mudflats along ocean shores, lakeshores, rivers, and alkali wetlands. It occurs in central Canada and the central US and on the US eastern and southeastern shores. The Piping Plover will experience a high degree of climate exposure and has a moderately high adaptive capacity. Overall, it has a Climate Change Vulnerability Index ranking of Moderately Vulnerable under both Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 Scenarios. The Piping Plover’s climate change vulnerability is impacted by factors related to distribution and movement, which influence its ability to shift in space. It also has documented or modeled responses to climate change that impact its vulnerability score.

Ecoregions

Chihuahuan Desert
Chihuahuan Desert
High Plains and Tablelands
High Plains and Tablelands

Habitats

Ephemeral Catchments
Ephemeral Catchments
Perennial Cold Water Streams
Perennial Cold Water Streams
Perennial Warm Water Streams
Perennial Warm Water Streams

Threats and Conservation Actions

Result for: All
Natural System Modifications
As appropriate to local site conditions (e.g., topography, prevailing winds, disturbance history, infrastructure) (Urza et al. 2023) and not in persistent piñon (Pinus spp.)-juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodlands (Romme et al. 2009, Darr et al. 2022), thin stands of trees in forests and woodlands to natural or historic densities that reduce the probability of insect and disease outbreaks and stand-replacing wildfires and promote the growth of native understory cover (Redmond et al. 2023). Avoid unnecessary removal of large old-growth trees and snags, which serve as important wildlife habitat (Kalies and Rosenstock 2013); leave some juvenile trees or plant seedlings to promote establishment of new trees (Redmond et al. 2023); use best practices to maintain soil health (e.g., Tomao et al. 2020) including retaining sufficient seed trees and sources of mycorrhizal inoculum (Simard et al. 2021) and limiting pile burning and mastication where possible (Ross et al. 2012); implement landscape- and regional-scale heterogeneity in treatment design (Bradley 2009); and evaluate treatment effectiveness (e.g., McKinney et al. 2022, Davis et al. 2024, Hood et al. 2024), including monitoring local SGCN populations. Potential collaborators: BLM, NPS, USFS, SFD, SLO, non-profit organizations.

Natural System Modifications
Assess the impacts of stream-flow magnitude, frequency, timing, duration, and rate of change on riparian ecosystems and the effects of hydrologic alterations on these ecosystems. Determine flows needed to sustain SGCN and their habitats and the effects of flow modification by upstream dams and of upland disturbances in local watersheds (Goeking and Tarboton 2022). Work with agencies that manage dams and reservoirs to ensure released environmental flows match amounts and timing of flow needed for persistence of native riparian communities and associated SGCN, including allowing for overbank flows to coincide with seed dispersal from native vegetation (e.g., Greco 2013) and when saturated soil can best benefit SGCN prey. Potential collaborators: BOR, USACE, USFWS, USGS, NMED, NMOSE, universities, private industry.

Natural System Modifications
Assess the synergistic effects between climate change and other threats to SGCN and their habitats (e.g., Friggens et al. 2019, Parks et al. 2019). Incorporate appropriate climate adaptation strategies and frameworks into projects designed to address these synergistic effects. This may include enhancing connectivity (CEQ 2023), facilitating a species’ innate adaptive capacity (Thurman et al. 2022), enhancing genetic diversity (Powell 2023), considering local adaptation (Meek et al. 2023), or considering whether it is most appropriate to resist, accept, or direct ecosystem transformation (Lynch et al. 2021, Stevens et al. 2021). Projects should acknowledge ecosystem dynamism and incorporate indigenous knowledge (e.g., Roos et al. 2022, Eisenberg et al. 2024), nature-based solutions (Warnell et al. 2023), and experimentation (Guiterman et al. 2022) when appropriate. Potential collaborators: BLM, NPS, USFS, USFWS, USGS, universities, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Collaborate with interested and willing land managers and private landowners to designate protected areas or implement conservation easements for lands that encompass important SGCN habitats. Potential collaborators: BLM, NPS, NRCS, USFS, USFWS, SLO, non-profit organizations, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Consider appropriate policies to protect the biotic and abiotic resources of ephemeral aquatic ecosystems and to support higher water quality standards for wetlands. Potential collaborators: NMED.

Natural System Modifications
Create public awareness of the function, values, services, and products of ephemeral aquatic ecosystems. Potential collaborators: BLM, NPS, USFS, USFWS, SLO, non-profit organizations.

Natural System Modifications
Design and implement riparian and aquatic habitat restoration projects to benefit SGCN. This may include establishing priorities for habitat restoration and developing reach-specific plans. May also include designing and implementing low-tech, process-based restoration techniques (Wheaton et al. 2019) to restore degraded headwater stream systems and improve SGCN habitat or specific actions such as reintroducing keystone species including American beavers (Castor canadensis) (Baker and Cade 1995, McKinstry et al. 2001, Grudzinski et al. 2022) and restoration and monitoring of self-sustaining populations of North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) and native fishes. Monitor restoration projects to determine effectiveness (Block et al. 2001, Holste et al. 2022) and inform adaptive management. Potential collaborators: BLM, BOR, NPS, USACE, USFS, USFWS, NMED, SFD, SLO, universities, non-profit organizations, private landowners, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Determine amount, status, and trend of upland, aquatic, and riparian habitats; levels of fragmentation; and how SGCN might be affected. Identify appropriate locations and implement projects to enhance habitat quality and connectivity or prevent further fragmentation. This may include re-connecting streams and aquatic habitats that have been fragmented by dams, diversions, and other man-made structures that isolate and preclude movement of aquatic and semi-aquatic SGCN. Remove structures when feasible; otherwise, improve existing infrastructure by incorporating passage features for aquatic organisms (e.g., fish ladders). May also include protecting and promoting the natural establishment, development, and succession of native riparian vegetation by addressing any locally limiting hydrological conditions (e.g., ensuring overbank flooding occurs at optimal times and establishment of early successional vegetation) (Hatten et al. 2010, Greco 2013, Stanek et al. 2021, Wohner et al. 2021). May further include emphasizing restoration in areas that will enhance connectivity between native riparian habitat patches (e.g., migratory stopover sites) (McNeil et al. 2013). Re-establish SGCN in areas where extirpated and appropriate. Potential collaborators: BLM, BOR, NPS, USACE, USFS, USFWS, NMDOT, NMED, SFD, SLO, SWCDs, universities, non-profit organizations, private landowners, Tribal natural-resource managers, water-management districts.

Natural System Modifications
Determine beneficial fire frequencies and intensities and work with land-management agencies, sovereign Tribal entities, and private landowners to develop fire management plans that thoroughly consider local environmental conditions (e.g., weather, fuel conditions, landscape characteristics, local wildlife) (Russell et al. 2024) and implement prescribed burns or cultural burns (Roos et al. 2021, Parks et al. 2023, Eisenberg et al. 2024) that avoid disturbing SGCN during sensitive periods (e.g., nesting); maintain condition of sensitive habitats (e.g., riparian habitat), ecosystem components (e.g., soil microbiotic community [Dove and Hart 2017, Brady et al. 2022, Nelson et al. 2022], regenerating seedlings [Owen et al. 2020]), and ecosystem function (e.g., soil carbon storage, nutrient cycling) (Brady et al. 2022, Nelson et al. 2022); avoid fire use in unsuitable habitats (e.g., Chihuahuan Desert grasslands) (Bestelmeyer et al. 2021); enhance local diversity (Bowman et al. 2016, Eisenberg et al. 2024) and gene flow (Jones et al. 2023), including of SGCN such as pollinating insects; and protect people and property (Roos et al. 2021, USFS 2022). Potential collaborators: BLM, NPS, USFS, USFWS, SFD, SLO, universities, private landowners, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Determine life history needs, ecology, distribution, movements, status, and trends of and threats to SGCN (especially invertebrates that are not currently monitored, riparian-obligate species, herpetofauna [Pierce et al. 2016, Olson and Pilliod 2022], and rare native fishes) and their habitats. Consider full annual cycles for migratory species when appropriate and logistically feasible (KFF 2021) and interactions with lower trophic levels that may drive SGCN status (e.g., EPA 2023). Use this information to develop and implement effective monitoring protocols and conservation actions, including actions to mitigate identified threats. Potential collaborators: BLM, BOR, NPS, USFS, USFWS, SLO, universities, non-profit organizations, private industry, species working groups, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Determine responses of upland, and associated riparian/aquatic, communities that include SGCN to prescribed burns and wildfires (e.g., Saab et al. 2022). Where appropriate, integrate low-intensity fire and fuels reduction management into riparian ecosystem conservation. Design and implement projects that reduce unnaturally high fire risk associated with increased fuel loads or lack of moist soils in riparian areas. Methods may include flooding and/or implementing environmental flows, mechanical removal of non-native woody plants (e.g., tamarisk [Tamarix spp.]) and woody debris (Ellis 2001, Webb et al. 2019), and replanting native riparian vegetation (Queheillalt and Morrison 2006, Mosher and Bateman 2016). Potential collaborators: BLM, BOR, NPS, USACE, USFS, USFWS, SFD, SLO, universities, private landowners, water-management districts.

Natural System Modifications
Develop and implement survey and monitoring protocols for aquatic and semi-aquatic SGCN in ephemeral habitats that currently are not monitored. Potential collaborators: BLM, DOD, NPS, USFS, USFWS, SLO, universities, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Develop and maintain a database of the location and status of ephemeral aquatic habitats. Use standardized monitoring and survey methods and satellite imagery to classify and track gains and losses of habitat. Potential collaborators: NMED, universities, non-profit organizations.

Natural System Modifications
Document, monitor, protect, enhance, and restore ephemeral aquatic ecosystems (catchments, marshes/cienegas/springs, playas) to minimize the loss of these water bodies and any surrounding wetlands in New Mexico. Develop monitoring protocols and conservation actions for ephemeral aquatic habitats and associated SGCN. In particular, focus efforts on wetland-obligate species that use these habitats for all or part of their life cycle or during migration. Potential collaborators: BLM, NRCS, USFS, NMED, SLO, universities, non-profit organizations, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Employ and support incentive programs, including those specifically designed for wetland conservation, to protect, enhance, and restore aquatic habitats. Potential collaborators: NRCS, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Encourage aquatic habitat-improvement projects, such as creating ponds and oxbows near stream systems and stock tank improvements, to benefit aquatic SGCN (Stuart and Ward 2009, Stone et al. 2022). Potential collaborators: BLM, BOR, DOD, NPS, NRCS, USACE, USFS, USFWS, NMED, SLO, private landowners, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Encourage sustainable groundwater use to protect aquatic and riparian habitats from lowered groundwater tables. Promote water conservation, such as use of devices and models that facilitate optimal irrigation (Schaible and Aillery 2012, Storm et al. 2024) and estimate water consumption and withdrawal (Zhou et al. 2021) or temporary field fallowing (DBS&A 2022) and dryland farming, especially of drought-adapted crops (McCarthy 2024), to conserve the structure and function of aquatic and riparian habitats. Promote the use of water data from groundwater monitoring networks (Pine et al. 2023) to inform water conservation and management strategies. Potential collaborators: DOD, NRCS, NMBGMR, NMDA, SLO, municipalities, private landowners, water-management districts.

Natural System Modifications
Ensure the ecological sustainability and integrity of the Great Plains Shortgrass Prairie and associated SGCN by establishing conservation agreements or memoranda of understanding or acquiring lands from willing sellers. Potential collaborators: NRCS, USFWS, SFD, SLO, non-profit organizations, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Evaluate the effectiveness of public education and outreach efforts regarding threats to SGCN and their habitats and the ways that the public can assist in threat mitigation (KFF 2021). Modify outreach activities as needed in response to evaluation outcomes. Potential collaborators: BLM, BOR, NPS, USACE, USFS, USFWS, USGS, NMED, NMSP, SFD, SLO, universities, local governments, municipalities, non-profit organizations.

Natural System Modifications
Examine and quantify how geographically isolated wetlands and wetland complexes contribute hydrologically, chemically, and biologically to other waters. Includes assessing how they contribute to surface and groundwater quality and how they differ in terms of biodiversity from interconnected wetland complexes. Potential collaborators: BLM, DOD NPS, USFS, USFWS, NMED, SLO, universities, non-profit organizations.

Natural System Modifications
Identify SGCN within ephemeral aquatic ecosystems and isolated wetlands that lack federal protection under the Clean Water Act and identify actions to protect these SGCN and their habitats. Potential collaborators: BLM, DOD, NPS, USFS, USFWS, NMED, SLO, universities, non-profit organizations, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Identify at-risk populations of SGCN that utilize ephemeral aquatic habitats and develop actions to conserve them. Potential collaborators: BLM, DOD, NPS, USFS, USFWS, SLO, universities, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Identify or develop an accessible, jointly used database to document the status and condition of, threats to, and conservation actions implemented across aquatic, riparian, and upland habitats. Identify data gaps (e.g., Ganey et al. 2017) and implement standardized methods to gather habitat data (e.g., Vollmer et al. 2018, Shirk et al. 2023) and to monitor the success of conservation actions (e.g., Davis and Pinto 2021), including impacts on local SGCN populations. Synthesize existing information (e.g., Jain et al. 2021) and apply modeling techniques to aid in evaluating success when appropriate (e.g., Parks et al. 2018). Adjust future conservation actions as needed based on observed outcomes. Potential collaborators: BLM, BOR, NPS, USACE, USFS, USFWS, USGS, NMED, SFD, SLO, universities.

Natural System Modifications
Identify populations of aquatic, semi-aquatic, and riparian SGCN in ephemeral aquatic ecosystems that become isolated during dry periods. Work to protect interconnected wetland habitats and to connect currently isolated wetland patches to limit geographic isolation of wetland ecosystems that might lead to biodiversity loss. Potential collaborators: BLM, DOD, NPS, USFS, USFWS, NMBGMR, NMED, SLO, universities.

Natural System Modifications
Implement protections to conserve aquatic habitats within closed basins or hydrologic units not currently designated as Waters of the United States. Potential collaborators: BLM, USFS, NMED, NMOSE, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Inform interested and affected members of the public about the value of aquatic and riparian systems, keystone species used in aquatic and riparian restoration projects, and maintaining in-stream flows to build support for the conservation of aquatic and riparian species and habitat-restoration efforts. Potential collaborators: BOR, NPS, NRCS, USACE, USFS, USFWS, NMED, universities, non-profit organizations, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Investigate the ecology of threats to and environmental conditions that limit SGCN that inhabit ephemeral aquatic habitats. Potential collaborators: BLM, NPS, USFS, USFWS, SLO, universities, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Locate and protect SGCN that occur in high elevation, ephemeral aquatic ecosystems. Potential collaborators: USFS, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Promote post-fire management activities that are beneficial to SGCN. Includes minimizing ash flow into streams and other post-fire impacts to water quality (Rhoades et al. 2019a, Rhoades et al. 2019b), augmenting natural plant regeneration (e.g., planting tree seedlings in areas with appropriate microclimatic conditions and re-seeding burned areas with native species and when there are appropriate climatic conditions) (Herron et al. 2013, Copeland et al. 2018, Marshall et al. 2023) and protecting natural seed sources (Stevens et al. 2021), and encouraging heterogeneity (Ziegler et al. 2017, Owen et al. 2020). Potential collaborators: NRCS, NPS, USFS, NMED, SFD, SLO, non-profit organizations, private landowners, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Promote public participation in restoration and conservation of watersheds. Potential collaborators: BOR, NPS, USACE, USFS, USFWS, NMED, SFD, universities, private landowners, non-profit organizations.

Natural System Modifications
Re-connect ephemeral stream and wetland habitats that have been fragmented by roads, culverts, and other man-made structures that isolate and preclude movement of aquatic and semi-aquatic SGCN. Does not include structures that serve a beneficial role for wildlife (e.g., native fish barriers). Re-establish SGCN in areas where extirpated and appropriate. Potential collaborators: BLM, NPS, USFS, NMDOT, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Reduce shrub encroachment in grassland habitats important to SGCN. This may be achieved through reduction of processes that promote shrub encroachment, implementation of a natural fire regime (Ravi et al. 2009), reseeding with native grasses, and shrub removal (Bestelmeyer et al. 2003). Potential collaborators: BLM, DOD, USFS, USFWS, SLO, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Restore and protect aquatic, riparian, wetland, and wet meadow habitats, particularly springs and cienegas, and the surface and groundwater that supports them. Minimize activities that lead to gully formation, soil erosion, or a loss of soil health (e.g., soil fungal diversity) (Wagner 2023). Potential collaborators: BLM, BOR, NPS, NRCS, USACE, USFS, USFWS, NMED, SLO, private landowners, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Restore, protect, and monitor important disjunct wildlife habitats, such as caves, limestone outcrops, playas, saline lakes, and talus slopes. Potential collaborators: BLM, DOD, NPS, NRCS, USFS, USFWS, EMNRD, SLO, non-profit organizations, private landowners.

Natural System Modifications
Survey and monitor perennial marshes/cienegas/springs/seeps habitats and the SGCN that inhabit them to determine changes in habitat quantity and quality and the status and trend of SGCN populations. Promote conservation efforts, such as protecting groundwater resources, that enhance the persistence and quality of these perennial aquatic habitats. Potential collaborators: BLM, USFS, USFWS, NMED, SLO, universities, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Natural System Modifications
Where appropriate, incorporate native, pollinator-friendly plants (Glenny et al. 2022) or native plants adapted to projected future climatic conditions at the restoration site (e.g., Meek et al. 2023, Stanturf et al. 2024) into seed mixes and live plantings used in the restoration of lands affected by grazing, fire, resource extraction, energy development, or urban development. Consider reclamation site conditions, genetic diversity, and resilience to local threats when producing seedlings (Davis and Pinto 2021) and consider appropriate climate analogs when identifying appropriate seed sources (e.g., Richardson et al. 2024). When focused on benefiting pollinators, prioritize plants that are attractive to pollinators, especially SGCN; support pollinators throughout the growing season (Glenny et al. 2023); provide food for caterpillars of insect SGCN (e.g., Dumroese et al. 2016); and produce pollen with high nutritional diversity (Vaudo et al. 2024). Potential collaborators: BLM, NPS, NRCS, USFS, SFD, SLO, energy and mining companies, non-profit organizations, private landowners, Tribal natural-resource managers.

Related Resources

  • Species of Greatest Conservation Need Chapter in SWAP document
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