Project Name: Rollover Bay Post-Construction Monitoring for the Piping Plover and Red Knot

Project Location: Galveston County

Project Type: Survey and Sampling

Owner: Texas General Land Office

Hicks & Company ecologists assisted with multiple years of post-construction monitoring surveys for the federally threatened Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) and Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa) resulting from the closure of Rollover Pass on Bolivar Peninsula. Rollover Bay is designated critical habitat for the Piping Plover (Critical Habitat Unit TX-37). Each year, ecologists conducted five fall, twelve winter, and five spring surveys for these species and also conducted three benthic macroinvertebrate sampling events during winter surveys to analyze the potential prey for wintering Piping Plovers. All avian species detected during the surveys were recorded and enumerated with multiple Piping Plovers documented. Results of the surveys and sampling events were compiled in monitoring reports.