The recent reclassification of the red-cockaded woodpecker from endangered to threatened came some 25 years earlier than initially anticipated.
Wildlife officials attribute the downlisting, announced Oct. 24, to widespread, collective efforts between government agencies and multiple organizations that have worked to restore and manage habitat on which the small birds depend.
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But some conservation groups argue that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision prematurely removes protections for the species because its habitat remains fragmented, which keeps the birds isolated to certain areas, making them particularly vulnerable in a changing climate.
The red-cockaded woodpecker was listed as endangered in 1970 following decades of habitat loss – largely longleaf pine forests – to logging, fire suppression, urban development and agricultural sprawl. Those practices stripped the nation’s Southeastern landscape of longleaf pine forests from Virginia to Florida to Texas.
John Doresky, Fish and Wildlife Service red-cockaded woodpecker recovery coordinator, said the downlisting “speaks volumes” to the work that continues to be done on the ground to recuperate the birds’ habitat.
“What it says to me is that the scientific advisory committee that was put together that developed the recovery plan, their vision of how we needed to move forward was spot on,” he said.
Here in North Carolina, ongoing collaborations between state agencies, Department of Defense installations, and numerous conservation organizations are actively restoring longleaf pine forests.
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Last year alone, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission burned tens of thousands of acres for the sake of red-cockaded woodpecker habitat creation and restoration.
“The red-cockaded woodpecker is pretty nuanced in that it responds well to active management,” said Nick Shaver, the commission’s coastal eco-region supervisor. “If you create the habitat where it wants to be it will more than likely move there and that’s the reason for the success story. Lots of partnerships have been formed that benefit that critter and lots of land management has been done in the name of the red-cockaded woodpecker and they responded.”
Moving toward recovery
The downlisting means that protections are still in place for red-cockaded woodpeckers.
Under what is often called the “4(d) Rule,” which the Fish and Wildlife Service uses to issue regulations tailored to conserve a threatened species, land managers will continue to have to follow best management practices and rules established by state agencies, Doresky said.
But the rule somewhat loosens what have been historically restrictive land management practices, giving property managers some liberties they have not had these last 50 or so years – as long as the intention is to create old-growth forest habitat for the woodpeckers.
“Generally speaking, the protections remain the same as they were when (the woodpecker) was listed as endangered,” Doresky said.
Land managers will not have to go through some of the more laborious processes they did before to get approval to apply certain management tools such as prescribed fire and chemical applications.
For example, land managers who want to treat a landscape with chemicals have to ensure they’re not making an application of a chemical too caustic or apply it at the wrong time of the year.
Managers who choose to use prescribed burns or thinning to spur healthy pine forests with the goal of creating old growth, which is essential to red-cockaded woodpeckers, will not have to take as many cautions to protect and preserve each tree that has a woodpecker cavity.
Red-cockaded woodpeckers bore cavities into living pine trees, a process that takes the little birds, on average, about a year. These woodpeckers live in groups, or clusters, and help each other raise their young.
Red-cockaded woodpeckers prefer mature, longleaf pine forests that are generally more than 80 years old.
“Because the status is better we’re willing to accept some of those short-term potential risks,” Doresky explained. “We have enough tools now to stabilize and increase these activities in addition to these management strategies in the recovery plan. Once those are in place you’re really just waiting on time and you’re hoping that there isn’t some catastrophic event.”
Too soon?
Opponents of the downlisting say now is simply not the right time, particularly as the Southeast is experiencing more frequent, powerful coastal storms, sea level rise, and rising temperatures fueled by climate change.
According to an Oct. 24 Center for Biological Diversity release, Hurricane Helene destroyed 18 nest cavity trees in one area in Florida alone.
“The recovery of an endangered species is always something to celebrate but, in this case, it’s premature,” Ben Prater, Defenders of Wildlife Southeast program director, said in a statement. “It’s ironic that the decision to downlist has been made in the wake of one of the largest and most destructive storms to hit the Southeast in recorded history, fracturing crucial connections between red-cockaded woodpecker habitats. Decades of significant progress have been made to recover this species and manage habitats effectively — progress which could now be upended at a critical time.”
Defenders of Wildlife was among two dozen conservation groups that signed off on a 39-page letter in 2022 imploring the Fish and Wildlife Service to maintain the red-cockaded woodpeckers’ endangered status.
The letter, submitted on behalf of the groups by the Southern Environmental Law Center argued Fish and Wildlife had not justified downlisting the species
“While it’s encouraging that the service responded to many of our concerns by retaining more of the bird’s prior legal protections, the downlisting decision is still not based on the best interest of the species,” Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney and Wildlife Program leader Ramona McGee said in a 2022 statement. “The service has not met its own scientific recovery plan criteria to justify loosening protections for this imperiled Southern icon.”
The letter was signed by organizations in North Carolina, including Audubon North Carolina, North Carolina Sierra Club and North Carolina Wildlife Federation.
“These beautiful birds are making an incredible comeback thanks to the Endangered Species Act,” Will Harlan, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Decades of active management by local, state and federal agencies have paid off, but a lot more still needs to be done to protect the long-leaf pine forests these woodpeckers and hundreds of other species call home.”
The future for recovery
The red-cockaded woodpeckers’ new status is more than two decades ahead of when the scientific advisory committee that created the recovery plan for the species anticipated.
While that may be a testament to the effectiveness of the strategies included in the recovery plan, it’s no indication of when the woodpeckers could be delisted.
The delisting criteria for the species includes that they are no longer dependent on artificial cavity inserts, which are used to stabilize and increase populations. Inserts expedite the creation a tree cavity.
Cavities are critical to the red-cockaded woodpeckers’ survival.
“That, to me, is sort of the variable that makes the prediction hereafter almost impossible because almost every single population has false cavities that are sustaining these populations at probably 50%, maybe larger,” Doresky said. “So, trying to anticipate how long it will take for properties to get trees old enough and to no longer be dependent on those cavities that we put in, yeah, that’s a tough one.”
In North Carolina, multiple agencies are partners are working to expand longleaf pine forests, also referred to as stands, in the state by actively replacing what have been commercial loblolly pine forests, which are forests grown and harvested for commercial purposes, with longleaf pines.
But the longleaf pine is one of the more slow-growing pine trees, Shaver said, and they take decades to mature.
“You’re looking 50, 60 years for stands that we’re establishing right now to be mature,” he said. “But because of the vast effort of longleaf restoration that really kicked off 30 years ago, 40 years ago, those initial stands are going to be mature in 20, 30 years. The outlook is really good because the expansion of longleaf restoration across the southeast, as those trees grow up through time, it’s going to give more and more and more land for those birds to expand.”
