About the project

Through a 2020 catalyst project, staff from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources worked with ACE Basin NERR and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to fill a critical gap in understanding piping plover needs by quantifying foraging habitat characteristics of this declining shorebird species and developing a habitat assessment tool to inform state and federal permitting and habitat management activities.

About this resource

This guide was created to inform users such as state and federal biologists and others involved in coastal permit review processes. It includes a piping plover habitat identification key, descriptions and photos of various important habitat characteristics, and vignettes for each of the primary habitat types that describe the key features of each habitat. This will improve the coastal permit review process, as agency staff can use this information to assess the importance of habitats to foraging piping plovers.