Why did the red-cockaded woodpecker disappear?…
The southern pine ecosystems, once contiguous across large areas and kept open with recurring fire, provided ideal conditions for a nearly continuous distribution of red-cockaded woodpeckers throughout the South. Today, approximately one percent of the red-cockaded woodpecker’s historical habitat remains. The disappearance of the red-cockaded woodpecker coincided with the loss of the longleaf pine ecosystem. As settlers and the early timber industry cut the forests, birds were isolated in tracts where trees deemed unmarketable were left standing. Aerial and ground photographs from the 1930s show scattered medium-to-large trees left in many stands. These culled trees at least for a time provided nesting and foraging habitat for the birds. But the threat of a disappearing habitat continued. Beginning in the 1950s, the forest structure and composition changed dramatically, especially on lands managed for forest products. Accepted techniques such as clear cutting, short timber rotations, c