Red-cockaded woodpeckers once thrived throughout the South’s longleaf pine forests that stretched from Virginia to Texas. But conservation measures, including interventions like the artificial cavities his team built in the hurricane’s wake, have been key to their success. He notes that the forest is currently home to 600 active family groups-100 more than the recovery goal for this population. Forest Service wildlife biologist for the Apalachicola forest.

“This is a species that is dependent on management to persist on the landscape,” says John Dunlap, U.S. It’s a move some fear is premature, jeopardizing the birds’ recovery. Good enough, in some pockets of the population, that the federal government is contemplating downgrading or removing the species from the list. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has been reviewing their status, as mandated by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These iconic and highly social birds, which live in family groups comprised of a breeding pair and up to four of their male offspring, have perched on the Endangered Species List for the past 50 years. By Thanksgiving, almost 700 of these artificial cavities had been installed in the forest, helping avert any negligible decline in the population of the small black-and-white birds.ĭespite the persistence of red-cockaded woodpeckers in Apalachicola National Forest, the species is not yet out of the woods. Forest Service employees and partners from across the region jumped into action building nesting cavities that would have taken the woodpeckers years to excavate. Trees crashed to the earth, bringing with them approximately 1,400 nests of the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker in a potentially catastrophic blow to the species’ largest population.

On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael swept up the west coast of Florida, shredding its way through the longleaf pine stands of Apalachicola National Forest.

Red cockaded woodpecker call