Although mountain plovers (Charadrius montanus) resemble shorebirds like sandpipers, they are found only in the interior of the western U.S. and Mexico. These ground-nesting birds historically were closely associated with prairie dog colonies, where the bare soil of the burrow mounds provided excellent nest sites. As prairie dog species have declined throughout the west, mountain plovers have increasingly sought out agricultural lands for nesting, but farm machinery often destroys these nests. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was concerned enough about mountain plover declines that it proposed to list it as a Threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1999, but never followed through with the listing. CNE and others took the Service to court and obtained a settlement agreement that required the Service to make a final listing determination for the mountain plover, but the Service subsequently removed the bird from their Candidate list.  We continue to pursue formal protections for the mountain plover and monitor potentially harmful activities in its habitat.