Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Birth an Endangered Species Act Success
Virginians lucky enough to spot a rare red-cockaded woodpecker may not know they are witnessing an incredible comeback in the making. Populations of these endangered birds were in a nosedive, but thanks to state, local and federal cooperation, they are on the road to recovery.
A joint breeding program operated by the College of William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University recently announced a milestone: red-cockaded woodpeckers in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge had successfully bred, with the next generation already flying and foraging for themselves.
The news is heartening — red-cockaded woodpeckers once occurred across the Southeast in the region’s formerly extensive long-leaf pine forests. After the vast majority of these forests were lost to logging, agriculture and urban sprawl, the birds massively declined, almost disappearing in Virginia.
But the red-cockaded woodpecker was saved from oblivion by one of the nation’s most successful environmental laws — one that anti-wildlife politicians are trying to dismantle.
The woodpecker is protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The Act’s strong protections have helped ensure habitat the birds require for their nests is preserved, giving them a chance to thrive. Other woodpeckers excavate cavities in dead trees, but red-cockaded woodpeckers bores holes for nests solely in living pine trees.
Now, we’re seeing those protections pay off. In Virginia, until recently, there was only one breeding population of red-cockaded woodpeckers in the Piney Grove Preserve in Sussex County, with about 70 birds. With multiple breeding pairs and young birds now in the Great Dismal Swamp, they have the chance to establish themselves in more extensive public lands with room to grow.
Nationally, by the time of its listing as an endangered species in 1979, the red-cockaded woodpecker had declined to fewer than 10,000 individuals in isolated and declining groups. That number has grown to an estimated 14,068 red-cockaded woodpeckers now living across 11 states.
The red-cockaded woodpecker’s recovery progress is the rule, not the exception for the Endangered Species Act, America’s strongest environmental law. When first placed under its protection, most endangered species have critically low population numbers, declining toward extinction. Then, after a decade or two of focused work by scientists, conservationists and state and federal wildlife agencies, the great majority of species’ populations increase or stabilize.
One example is our own Virginia big-eared bat. The bat’s population was estimated at just 3,500, a dangerously number for the species, when it received Endangered Species Act protections in 1979. By 2000, thanks to federal protections, it had grown to 18,442.
The same trend is found throughout the country. Northeastern piping plovers increased 354 percent, the Florida panther increased 483 percent and Kirtland’s warblers in the Great Lakes states grew a whopping 1,077 percent.
Despite its immense success and broad support from the American people, anti-endangered species factions in Congress are trying to dismantle the Endangered Species Act.
In just this 115th Congress, 39 legislative attacks on the Act have already been introduced. The worst bills would allow trade in African ivory — a coffin nail for elephants — as well as remove protections for Great Lakes wolves and undo protections for the majority of endangered species because they occur in only one state.
This landmark environmental law has prevented more than 99 percent of species it protects from extinction and helped hundreds more recover. It is not time to weaken the law, but instead fully fund the Act to help more species like the red-cockaded woodpecker from being lost forever.
Now more than ever we need to let Congress know Virginians support protections for imperiled wildlife. The next generation of Americans will be richer with each saved species.
Stephanie Kurose is an endangered species policy specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
