Red-cockaded woodpeckers' recovery in southeast leads to status change from endangered to threatened

The red-cockaded woodpecker, an iconic vertebrate successful southeastern forests, has recovered capable of its organization to beryllium downlisted from an endangered type to a threatened one

WASHINGTON -- The red-cockaded woodpecker, an iconic vertebrate successful southeastern forests, has recovered capable of its organization to beryllium downlisted from an endangered type to a threatened one, nan U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday.

"The downlisting of nan red-cockaded woodpecker marks a important milestone successful our nation’s committedness to preserving biodiversity,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland successful a statement.

At 1 constituent successful nan 1970s, nan red-cockaded woodpecker organization had dipped arsenic debased arsenic 1,470 clusters — aliases groups of nests, wildlife officials said. Today, location are an estimated 7,800 clusters.

“It’s an astonishing vertebrate that has an different communal nesting structure,” said Will Harlan of nan nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. “All nests usually cluster successful nan aforesaid tree, and nan birds instrumentality together arsenic a family unit.”

Red-cockaded woodpeckers are residence specialists that nest only successful mature long-leaf conifer forests, building nests successful cavities of surviving trees partially hollowed retired by a fungus.

Long-leaf conifer forests erstwhile spanned overmuch of nan Atlantic and Gulf coastal regions, from New Jersey to Texas, but logging and improvement successful nan region reduced that to only 3% of this original residence today, said Harlan.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers were 1 of nan first type designated arsenic “endangered” successful nan United States successful 1970, and nan birds received afloat protections pinch transition of nan Endangered Species Act of 1973.

Since then, residence restoration and protection connected some nationalist and backstage lands person helped nan type to partially recover. Managed efforts to relocate birds from stronghold areas to reestablish populations successful different forests person besides aided nan species, said Georgetown ecologist Emily Williams.

“The news is breathtaking because it’s a conservation occurrence communicative successful galore ways," she said. “But location still needs to beryllium be aware to support nan type thriving."

It will still beryllium prohibited to “take” — meaning harass, hunt aliases harm — nan woodpeckers aliases their residence successful astir instances. But nan position alteration allows for nan anticipation of immoderate caller exceptions to those protections.

“The type still has a agelong measurement to spell for a afloat recovery,” said Ramona McGee, elder lawyer and wildlife programme leader astatine nan Southern Environmental Law Center. “Removing endangered type protections now could reverse past gains."

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