GEORGIA — A celebration more than 50 years in the making, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced the downlisting of the red-cockaded woodpecker from endangered to threatened, under the Endangered Species Act.

“Decades of committed recovery work and collaboration drove this remarkable story of recovery. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked closely with the Departments of Agriculture and Defense, private landowners, tribes, state agencies, businesses, utilities and conservation groups to reach today’s announcement,” said Service Director Martha Williams. “The improved status of the red-cockaded woodpecker shows that when we give species a chance, they can thrive.”

Red-cockaded woodpeckers were historically prevalent in many states throughout the South. However, significant factors — like fire suppression and the loss and fragmentation of old-growth pine forests— contributed to the species' decline.

In 1970, the red-cockaded woodpecker was placed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Endangered List after its U.S. population had fallen below 10,000. That’s because the kind of forest it needs to thrive—open woodlands and savannahs with large, old pines—was slowly disappearing.

Longleaf pine ecosystems now span just 5% of its historic range, mostly due to its location in the nation’s fastest growing region, making its timber and land valuable.

A conservation movement

Throughout the South, a coordinated landscape scale effort is in place to conserve and restore native open pine forests, many of which are among the most species-rich ecosystems outside of the tropics. These forests — home to more than 40 threatened and endangered species — have played an outsized role in the economy and culture of the South.

That means efforts to restore the red-cockaded woodpecker aren’t just good for them – it’s good for a whole suite of plants and animals that depend on a more open forest, like the beloved gopher tortoise. Teams of people from state and federal agencies, as well as private companies and landowners, are using prescribed fire, removing trees and planting longleaf pine seedlings.

The Forest Service selectively removes trees, preserving the oldest and largest longleaf and shortleaf pines, while thinning out smaller, younger trees when they become too dense. This helps open the forest, giving life to wildflowers, grasses and other plants on which birds and wildlife depend. In places where forests can be restored to the landscape, the agency plants resilient native longleaf or shortleaf pine seedlings.

“Woodpeckers and other birds need an open, sun-filled forest. We have been strategic and intentional about opening up the forest to create habitat suitable for a suite of species,” said Ken Arney, Regional Forester for the USDA Forest Service, Southern Region.

The red-cockaded woodpecker depends on mature, living, longleaf pines to create their homes. Specifically, longleaf pine trees that have been infected with heart rot. This enables the woodpecker to successfully pick through the wood to get to the softer inside to make its nest, and it can take them one or more years to excavate their nesting sites.  

Where natural cavities are insufficient, Forest Service biologists install artificial nest boxes on live pine trunks about 25 feet off of the ground, allowing the woodpecker to find suitable roosting and nesting spots. These woodpeckers typically live in family groups consisting of a breeding pair and up to four offspring who stick around with their parents for years after fledging.

The work continues

Make no mistake: The red-cockaded woodpecker is threatened. As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service writes, it’s “at risk of becoming endangered again due to habitat loss.”

That’s why the work to restore it – and the forests on which it depends – continues.

Today, there are more than 3,500 active red-cockaded woodpecker potential breeding groups on Forest Service lands in the Southern Region and more than 45,000 trees with nesting sites.