Articles

National Forests in Florida Key to Sustaining Woodpecker Population in Southeast

By Miki Kristina Gilloon, U.S. Forest Service

The National Forests in Florida play a critical role in recovering the red-cockaded woodpecker, a federally endangered species.

Over the past 20 years, more than 530 red-cockaded woodpeckers have been moved from the Apalachicola National Forest and more recently the Osceola National Forest. The woodpecker populations on the two Florida forests are healthy enough to offer birds to less stable populations in order to boost its numbers across the southeastern United States.

“By doing so we provide an invaluable source of red-cockaded woodpeckers to support regional translocation needs,” said Carl Petrick, U.S. Forest Service ecosystem management staff officer.

Just last month, 46 birds were captured and translocated to the Desoto National Forest in Mississippi, the Dupuis Reserve and J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area in Palm Beach County, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and the Apalachicola National Forest Wakulla District.

Translocation also develops better spatial arrangements of groups to reduce isolation, introduces new groups to suitable habitats and increases genetic diversity in smaller groups.

Forest Service Wildlife Biologist Chuck Hess, who has overseen and monitored the RCW population in the Apalachicola National Forest, pioneered translocation efforts for the National Forests in Florida since 1989.

“If we don’t move these birds, the populations in other areas die and its genetics disappear,” he said.

The red-cockaded woodpecker is a small bird measuring about seven inches long and identified by its white cheek patch and black and white barred back. The male birds have few red feathers that usually remain hidden under the black feathers on its head.

Once found sprawling in 90 million acres of longleaf pine forests in the southeast, the red-cockaded woodpecker’s population today numbers only 14,000 birds, or 5,600 active clusters across 11 states. The population reduction can be attributed to the declining habitat of the longleaf pine ecosystem whose footprint has been reduced to three percent of its original expanse.

“The two biggest advances in RCW recovery to date have been the development of artificial cavity technology and translocation of juvenile RCWs,” said Petrick. “Without either of these, RCW recovery would be very difficult and slow, if not improbable.”

The use of artificial cavities, or excavated holes, in mature pine trees allow existing populations to stabilize and encourages younger red-cockaded woodpeckers to move into suitable but unoccupied habitat once the cavities have been created.

Additionally, Petrick said the speed at which the RCW population grows is dramatically increased by translocating juvenile woodpeckers to recruitment clusters instead of depending on the birds to find other bird populations on their own.

Moving the Apalachicola National Forest’s healthy birds has proved successful as evidenced at the Chickasawhay Ranger District on the Desoto National Forest in 1991.

“About five single males were left on the population,” said Hess. “They were essentially on their way out.” After moving birds over a period of 10 years, the population increased to 30 breeding groups.

The Apalachicola National Forest provides a safe refuge for the largest – and the only recovered – population of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers in the world.

“Red-cockaded woodpeckers are effective indicators of a healthy longleaf pine system and are strongly tied to this ecosystem,” Hess said.

Conservation and management is central to recovery goals, and frequent prescribed burning on the Apalachicola National Forest is essential to maintaining a balanced forest ecosystem for the woodpeckers.

Today, the Apalachicola National Forest is home to 650 groups of red-cockaded woodpeckers, or 1,200 birds.

The birds are translocated once a year in October.