A Conservation Success Story In Progress

In Oct 2024, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers were downlisted from endangered to threatened status under the Endangered Species Act.
It is now April 2025. April is Earth Month. A month set aside to showcase all the days spent conserving, protecting, managing the nature that surrounds us. To showcase, with the 22nd as Earth Day, environmental concern turned to action by countless scientists, conservationists, environmentalists, & private citizen volunteers. And a few politicians.
The ongoing recovery of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers is a living showcase of possible success when every day of every month of every year is acted on as an earth-focused day.

Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, a simply ordained & shy bird, is never the less an iconic species of the Longleaf Pine Savanna ecosystem that once covered an estimated 90 to 92 million acres extending from Virginia to eastern Texas. But now down to just 5.2 million acres.
As the savanna disappeared so did almost all of the species that specialized in this highly diverse ecosystem defined by fire resistant longleaf pines and open understory of wiregrass regularly renewed fire.

Their listing as endangered in 1973 made Red-cockaded Woodpeckers a central focus on restoring & better managing large tracts of public & private Longleaf pine forests which in turn benefited many other southeastern North America species.
They are testimony to the good we can do when we set our minds to it.

Special Acknowledgement: These photos were taken by invitation on a special trip for Birds Georgia photographers’ network to the Jones Center at Ichuaway. We were guided to the birds’ locations by staff. All ethical standards were applied during the morning shoot.

To learn more about the incredible resources and research of the Jones Center please visit their website.