FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] (Red-cockaded ~ Long Article) Bird sits on a precarious perch

["Meghan Tice" <cecropia13@xxxxxxx>]

Bird sits on a precarious perch
Conservationists at preserve seek to save rare woodpecker, habitat
BY REX SPRINGSTON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 14, 2004
WAVERLY - Putting a torch to the ground, Brianne Erwin set fire to a Sussex 
County forest in order to save it - and a rare bird clinging to life there.
Erwin, a worker with the AmeriCorps service program, was among about 20 people 
who scorched 125 acres last week to make the woods more hospitable for the 
red-cockaded woodpecker, an endangered species.
"I feel like we are doing something important, because this bird is on its last 
legs," said Erwin. A few feet away, the fire cast off smoke and heat on an 
already-steamy day in the low 90s.
Conservationists in the Piney Grove Preserve, a 2,700-acre forest about 55 
miles southeast of Richmond, are trying to keep the woodpecker from going 
extinct in Virginia.
Burning, which creates an open kind of forest the woodpecker needs, is one way 
to help. But problems such as September's Hurricane Isabel, which leveled 
numerous trees and delayed some burning, are complicating the recovery effort.
The red-cockaded woodpecker is a black-and-white bird about the size of a 
bluebird, with a large white patch on each cheek. The "cockade" is a tiny red 
spot, usually hidden, behind each eye of the male.
Not the prettiest bird in the forest, this little woodpecker gets points for 
character. The birds live in family groups, as young males remain with their 
parents for a year or more. Everyone works together to rear young, find food 
and drill holes for homes.
But why worry about a small bird, which most people never see, in a remote part 
of Southside Virginia?
Scientists put it this way: To build the birds' numbers, experts must also 
restore a rare type of forest called a pine savanna - a vast, open woods that, 
like the bird, used to be common in the Southeast.
By preserving these forests and birds, scientists can save a living piece of 
Virginia's past, said Dana Bradshaw, an ecologist who has studied the 
woodpecker for 24 years.
"It's just bringing back a piece of history, no different than preserving a 
Civil War battlefield. . . . It is part of our heritage."
The red-cockaded woodpecker used to be found from New Jersey through the 
Southeast to Texas.
Because of development and other causes, the woodpecker today is extinct north 
of Virginia and rare to the south. The federal government declared it an 
endangered species in 1970.
Virginia's population totals 21 adults and 9 nestlings, struggling to survive 
at Piney Grove. Just three of those birds are breeding females.
Five years ago, there were just 11 woodpeckers at Piney Grove. The numbers went 
up, in part, because scientists brought in 16 birds from other states in 
2002-2003. Five of those remain.
"Piney Grove is kind of a life raft for the species," said Brian van Eerden, an 
ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, an environmental group that owns the 
preserve.
Hurricane Isabel nearly upset that raft. Spawning winds that reached 80 mph in 
Sussex, the storm toppled trees and damaged about 80 of the 800 acres of prime 
woodpecker habitat in the preserve.
The hurricane felled eight trees containing holes the woodpeckers had drilled 
for homes. Three were in use, but no birds were hurt.
Some birds drill holes in dead trees in a few days. The red-cockaded woodpecker 
drills its holes in live, old pines - a process that can take months, and 
sometimes more than a year.
"To see one blown over is a tremendous loss," said van Eerden.
Scientists responded by installing 10 "artificial cavities," birdhouses 
inserted into rectangular holes cut into the pines.
Before Europeans settled America, pine savannas sprawled across the coastal 
plain of the Southeast.
Fires, started by lightning and by Indians, created these open forests. The big 
pines survived, but smaller plants died back.
As America grew, these forests were replaced by buildings, farms and dense, 
commercial pine stands. In addition, people put out the fires that once kept 
the savannas open.
The savannas nearly disappeared, along with the woodpeckers that inhabited them.
To help bring back the red-cockaded woodpecker and the pine savanna, 
conservationists at Piney Grove are bringing back fire, burning several patches 
of forest each year.
Van Eerden, Erwin and co-workers braved chiggers, ticks and muggy heat last 
week to burn a section. Each fire-starter poured a mixture of diesel fuel and 
gasoline through the flaming nozzle of a canister called a "drip torch."
This kind of controlled burning is a science itself. You need just-right 
conditions - a gentle breeze and moderate humidity, among other things, to 
ensure the fire will be big enough to burn through the woods but small enough 
to be safe.
Before burning in earnest, the fire-makers set a small test blaze. A swirling 
breeze almost caused the leaders to call off that day's fire. The delay showed 
the difficulty in helping the woodpeckers.
"Even though we know what they need, it's not so easy to make it happen," said 
Wanda SanJule, a Nature Conservancy field technician.
Van Eerden hoped to burn six tracts in the preserve this spring. That didn't 
happen, in part because of Isabel.
Van Eerden had to use loggers to remove trees downed by the storm. Those trees 
would have provided too much fuel for a controlled fire.
The logging delayed the burning, as did a stormy spring. Instead of six fires 
this spring, van Eerden settled for three.
On this day, the winds proved gentle, and the burning went on. Clad in hot, 
yellow fire suits, the burners included Nature Conservancy employees, state and 
federal workers and volunteers.
A few small animals were apparently sacrificed for the common good. One fire 
tender, Old Dominion University graduate student Jay Bolin, jumped in front of 
a toad to direct it away from the fire.
"Herding toads!" Bolin said.
Running close to the ground, the fire did not hurt the woodpeckers, whose holes 
lie high in the pines.
The fire exemplified the peril facing an endangered species. If a storm or fire 
kills common animals such as robins or toads, new individuals can move in from 
forests next door - if there are forests next door.
It doesn't work that way for the red-cockaded woodpeckers. The Virginia 
population is so small and so remote that a big storm or fire could wipe it out.
So a hurricane, a perfectly natural event 400 years ago, becomes a potential 
catastrophe today.
Those working to protect the woodpecker include scientists from The Nature 
Conservancy, the College of William and Mary's Center for Conservation Biology 
and state and federal wildlife agencies.
In so many ways, Piney Grove is a living laboratory. The guinea pigs are these 
rare birds.
Without human intervention - burning, logging, installing artificial nests - 
the red-cockaded would surely disappear from Virginia. Even with help, the bird 
sits on a precarious perch.
"We're going to beat the odds," van Eerden said. "We're going to beat them."
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031776036751&path=%21news&s=1045855934842
Meghan Tice
cecropia13@xxxxxxx

You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email 
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.