The piping plover (Charadrius melodus) is a small migratory shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. There are three populations of piping plover: subspecies C. m. circumcinctus which has one population that occurs on the shorelines of the Great Lakes and another population that occurs along the rivers and lakes in the Northern Great Plains, as well as subspecies C. m. melodus that occurs along the Atlantic Coast. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses Northern Great Plains to include the piping plover population that breeds from Alberta, Canada to Colorado; however, some sources refer to piping plovers in Canada as the Prairie Canada population.

On December 11, 1985, the Atlantic Coast and Northern Great Plains populations were listed as threatened, and the population in the Great Lakes watershed was listed as endangered (50 FR 50626). In 1988, a recovery plan was written for the Atlantic Coast population, which was revised in 1996. Also in 1988, a recovery plan was finalized for the Great Lakes and Northern Great Plains populations. However, future recovery plans separated the two populations. The recovery plan for the Great Lakes population was revised in 2003, and a revised recovery plan for the Northern Great Plains population was completed in 2015.