The rise of the phoenix: How DoD and basic research saved the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker

Background/Question/Methods

Managers of public lands are faced with dual responsibilities of environmental stewardship and supporting other land uses.  This problem is particularly acute on military installations, which contain habitat and species of great conservation value, yet must accommodate demands on the landscape of the primary mission of military training.  The role of the academic scientist in this milieu is to provide increased understanding of the biology of species and ecosystems to determine how training activities interact with that biology, and to assist natural resource managers in integrating training and conservation based on this understanding.  In the southeastern United States the primary issue is integrating conservation of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) with training needs.  Training activities have been restricted to avoid disturbing the birds, and range construction has been restricted to avoid habitat loss.

Results/Conclusions

Our research provided a new understanding of regulation of RCW populations, revealing the central role of cavity trees.  This research suggested that disturbance of the birds is relatively unimportant, but habitat quality is critical.  We devised a new management strategy based on this new research involving use of artificial cavities to create new nesting habitat and prescribed fire to restore and maintain foraging habitat.  We worked with natural resource managers on three installations to apply this strategy.  At this time there were no increasing RCW populations but many declining ones, and many feared the species would go extinct. Natural resource managers, with the support of the military command and our assistance, effectively applied the new management on a large scale.  All three RCW populations increased rapidly, and two of the three were declared recovered.  Other installations have adopted the strategy, and their RCW populations are increasing as well.  Other agencies have applied the strategy less vigorously or not at all on their lands, and have not experienced such population increases.  Thus DOD has become the clear leader in bringing the RCW from the brink of extinct toward recovery.  DOD supported recovery efforts in order to ease restrictions on training.  Early indications are that, as anticipated, increased disturbance in the absence of training restrictions is having no adverse impacts on RCW populations.  However, the DOD Base Realignment and Closure Program has increased training demands on some installations, necessitating clearing of habitat for new range construction.  This conflicts with RCW conservation, and represents a new challenge to DOD’s ability to lead the recovery effort.