Report Overview

Point Blue developed a set of principles to assist practitioners and restoration teams develop climate-smart projects based on the principles developed by National Wildlife Federation (Stein et al. 2014 and Hansen et al. 2010). Though there is a long history of traditional ecological restoration of the beach and dune ecosystem in California and also in Monterey Bay, there is limited information on exactly how to make future projects climate-smart. This report contains principles that provide a framework for learning and for success across a broad range of possible future conditions.

The objectives of this document are to:

1) identify climate-smart strategies that will help maintain the recovered status of the Monterey Bay snowy plover population, and

2) assess the vulnerability of individual nesting sites along the Monterey Bay shoreline in order to identify opportunities for employing climate-smart strategies.

The Recovery Plan for the listed population provides specific recovery objectives, delisting criteria, and population targets for recovery units and sub-regions. Identification of climate-smart strategies, actions and opportunities for implementation is the first step toward incorporating an understanding of climate threats into future management of the snowy plover in Monterey Bay. It is our hope that when this climate-smart approach is implemented it will help to maintain the Monterey Bay snowy plover population at or above population targets in the near-term and also will provide a critical buffer for the population to adapt to changing environmental conditions over a longer time period.

Report Contents

• Ecology of Beaches, Dunes, and the Snowy Plover
• Climate Change Projections
• Vulnerability of the Snowy Plover and the Beach and Dune Ecosystem
• Climate-Smart Strategies and Actions for the Snowy Plover and the Beach and Dune Ecosystem
• Site-Specific Habitat Vulnerability Assessment