Red-cockaded woodpeckers reclassified to “threatened”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Oct. 24 it will reclassify the red-cockaded woodpecker from “Endangered” to “Threatened” on the federal government’s Endangered Species Act List.

The bird, most easily identified by its distinct “churt” or “sklit” vocalization, is a non-migratory resident of the longleaf pines of the Francis Marion National Forest.

Is this a conservation success story more than a half-century in the making, or a move that could undo decades of hard work? It depends who you ask.

“The downlisting of the red-cockaded woodpecker marks a significant milestone in our nation’s commitment to preserving biodiversity,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland wrote in a press release announcing the decision. “Through decades of collaborative efforts from a wide coalition of partners, we have brought this iconic species back from the brink of extinction, ensuring that future generations will continue to see these incredible birds thriving in their natural habitats.”

In the early 1970s, the species’ population was down to about 1,470 clusters. It has since rebounded to an estimated 7,800 clusters across eleven states, according to the service.

Mark Garner, the Francis Marion & Sumter National Forest wildlife program manager, said the change likely won’t change the Forest Service’s approach to managing the local population.

“Man, that was a great accomplishment to get to that point,” Garner said of the reclassification. “With red-cockaded woodpeckers being such a big part of my career, it’s exciting. It makes me feel really good.”

The woodpecker’s endangered status predates the modern ESA’s creation in December 1973. Protections for the bird originally were granted in 1970, under a precursor law to the ESA, according to the Nature Conservancy. The status gave it a bevy of special protections including, among other things, critical habitat protections, protection from harm, recovery assistance and financial aid for recovery.

As a “threatened” species, and under a special rule adopted by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the woodpeckers will retain many of those protections. But some conservation groups worry the reclassification could be a dangerous step in the wrong direction.

“While it’s encouraging that the service responded to many of our concerns by retaining more of the bird’s prior legal protections, the downlisting decision is still not based on the best interest of the species,” Ramona McGee, the Southern Environmental Law Center’s senior attorney and Wildlife Program leader, wrote in a press release. “The service has not met its own scientific recovery plan criteria to justify loosening protections for this imperiled Southern icon.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s research shows that most of the woodpecker’s populations are small and isolated with “inherently very low or low resiliency” to withstand environmental threats, according to the Law Center. Those threats include climate change, since the woodpeckers’ coastal woodland homes are vulnerable to supercharged hurricanes in the coming decades, the advocacy group noted.

In 1989, Hurricane Hugo flattened about a third of the Francis Marion National Forest, decimating the already vulnerable woodpeckers’ habitats. The population of red-cockaded woodpeckers in the forest dropped from an estimated 1,700, to 700.

The woodpeckers of the Francis Marion have since rebounded from the event and are more populous than before the storm. (They’re still not restored to their historic levels.) But it took decades of conservation work and experimental methods to reach that point.

There are two other large populations of red-cockaded woodpeckers in South Carolina, according to the Law Center. Neither the population along the Savannah River nor the population in the Sandhills are considered “recovered” like the Francis Marion woodpeckers. Smaller populations are also scattered across the state, Garner said.