Red-cockaded woodpeckers have had a rough time. They depend on mature, fire-maintained southeastern pine forests to feed and breed. Unfortunately, demand for timber and a really effective anti-fire campaign have reduced their once bountiful numbers to a few isolated relic populations. Conflicts between private landowner interests and enforced endangered species management has made things complicated. In 1995 the “Safe Harbor Program” was initiated to alleviate land owner concerns. If landowners agreed to manage for existing populations on their property, they would not incur any additional responsibility for increasing or expanding populations. While it is clear that the program was successful in alleviating landowner concerns, was it successful as a conservation tool? We looked at 34 years of breeding success and population data from Safe Harbor enrolled and non-enrolled properties to find out.
Read here! smith_etal_2018_condor
