Prairie dogs can create mountain plover habitat, and prairie dog towns are now considered some of the best remaining breeding habitat in Montana and Colorado. Biologists are working with landowners in developing recommendations as to how different cultivation practices may need to be looked at and possibly modified to benefit both landowners and mountain plovers. More information is needed as to how these practices affect the plover. The Service will be holding workshops to coordinate efforts with local landowners and develop recommendations as to possible changes in land uses that will benefit both plovers and landowners. There is a myth that the government has prosecuted hundreds of thousands of landowners for things they did on private land.
Grazing can be very beneficial to mountain plovers by maintaining needed short-grass habitat.
The Service is convinced that grazing practices can be managed to benefit both livestock and mountain plovers. Published literature documents that mountain plovers often inhabit heavily grazed sites. The Service is beginning to meet with ranchers to come up with solutions for managing both domestic livestock and habitat for mountain plovers, which may help to reverse the species declining trend. The Natural Resources Conservation Service administers many programs to benefit food production on private lands throughout the range of the mountain plover. Programs authorized by the NRCS that are proposed in areas occupied by the mountain plover will require compliance with Endangered Species Act.