The Future Of A Rare Southern Bird

Fort Stewart, near Savannah, is home to a large population of red-cockaded woodpeckers, a bird that was likely once common but has been considered endangered for decades.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers have been considered endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1970. The woodpecker's problem was habitat loss since longleaf pine forests were disappearing.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers live in family groups, but each has its own cavity in its own tree.

Fort Stewart has done a good job helping bring these woodpeckers back. The numbers here are high enough.

Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering changing the status of the red-cockaded woodpecker, from endangered, down to threatened. Or maybe even taking it off the list entirely.

The revisions wouldn’t work retroactively; if species are already protected, how they’re treated wouldn’t change. But if their status changes to threatened, the new regulations would come into effect.