Displaying items by tag: redcockaded woodpecker

The state of Tennessee is partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce the red-cockaded woodpecker to the mixed-pine forests of the state. Renee Bodine/USFWS

The threatened woodpecker was extirpated from Tennessee by 1994 due largely to fire suppression and loss of habitat

Lee Wilmot is a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency information specialist. 

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will partner with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce the Red-cockaded Woodpecker (RCW), a species extirpated from Tennessee in 1994.

“The return of the red-cockaded woodpecker is not just a biological milestone—it’s a triumph of collaboration for all Tennesseans,” said Gov. Bill Lee. “From land acquisitions in the 1990s to recent restoration efforts, I am proud this project reflects the power of shared vision and long-term commitment that benefits the Volunteer State. This is conservation at its best, and a promise kept to the land, the people, and future generations of Tennesseans.”

The red-cockaded woodpecker, once native to upland mature pine and oak-pine savannas in Tennessee, was extirpated from the state due to fire suppression, logging of old-growth pines, and habitat fragmentation. The last known such woodpecker in Tennessee was observed in 1994 in Cherokee National Forest. 

A red-cockaded woodpecker in flight. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last month the bird had been removed from the Endangered Species List.  Martjan Lammertink/USFS

Staccato voice of Southern woodlands removed from Endangered Species List

ATLANTA — Life is looking up for red-cockaded woodpeckers.

These perky, family-focused woodpeckers of mature Southeastern pinelands — they’re the nation’s only woodpecker that excavates cavities in living pines — had been federally listed as endangered for 50 years. Yet late last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service downlisted them to threatened.

Their recovery from an estimated 1,470 family groups in the 1970s to about 7,800 groups today from Virginia to Texas reflects decades of work by government agencies, nonprofits and private landowners.

Georgia mirrors that outlook and effort. The number of red-cockaded woodpecker family groups here “is now well north of 1,500,” said Joe Burnam, lead Department of Natural Resources biologist for the species.

The success story ranges from military lands like Fort Stewart, where controlled burns and “recruitment” clusters of artificial nest cavities inserted in trees are helping the population grow, to southwest Georgia quail properties enrolled in Safe Harbor, part of a U.S.-first habitat conservation plan that DNR developed in 1999 for the woodpeckers and private landowners.

Burnam said the downlisting keeps federal protections in place and will not affect DNR conservation practices in the state. “We’ll continue to do what we’ve been doing … managing for the birds (and) their habitat.”

Habitat loss and degradation, a combo that landed the woodpeckers on the Endangered Species Act list, remain the leading threats. For example, Hurricane Helene wiped out over 40 percent of the nest cavity trees at Moody Forest Wildlife Management Area and Natural Area near Baxley.

But new cavity inserts have already been chainsawed into pines, and others will be added, Burnam said.