The Woodpecker That Needs Fire

Manchester State Forest covers about 28,675 acres in Sumter and Clarendon counties, with 10,000 acres of longleaf pine. According to the South Carolina Forestry Commission’s December 2021 plan, there are five red-cockaded woodpecker clusters in the far south of Compartment 1.

The bird’s recovery relies on two things that may seem surprising: fire and artificial cavities made in living trees. Prescribed burns keep pine forests open, and artificial cavities give woodpeckers places to nest and rest until enough old trees can offer natural cavities.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its final reclassification rule Oct. 25, 2024, changing the red-cockaded woodpecker from endangered to threatened. The change took effect Nov. 25, 2024.

This change came after a steady rise in active clusters. When the species was listed in 1970, the Service estimated fewer than 10,000 birds in about 1,500 to 3,500 active clusters. Now, the Service estimates there are 7,800 active clusters across the species’ range. An active cluster means a group of cavity trees used by woodpeckers for nesting and roosting, not a count of individual birds.

The recovery is real, but how it happened matters.

Fire comes first

Red-cockaded woodpeckers need mature, living pines for their nesting and roosting cavities. They evolved in open pine forests where fire often moved through, keeping hardwoods under control and leaving open spaces around mature pines.

When regular fires stopped, things changed. Without fire, hardwoods and other plants filled the understory, and mature pine habitat became more scattered. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s recovery plan lists prescribed fire as a main tool to restore the conditions the species needs.

Manchester State Forest follows this approach. Prescribed burning, thinning, and replanting are all part of the plan. The five red-cockaded woodpecker clusters in the forest are managed with rules that require at least 75 acres of foraging habitat within a quarter-mile of each cluster center.

The federal government’s 2024 rule also affects private land. The species-specific 4(d) rule allows specified exceptions for activities that can benefit habitat, including prescribed burning and certain herbicide use, when landowners follow applicable best management practices and minimize effects on known active clusters.

Not every burn is automatically exempt. The exceptions come with conditions, and the rule also protects certain artificial-cavity activities if they meet the requirements.

All of this takes a long time. The Fish and Wildlife Service says red-cockaded woodpeckers dig cavities in mature pine trees, usually over 80 years old. Planting a tree now is part of a habitat plan that takes decades, not just years.

And then there is the hole.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers are different from most North American woodpeckers because they dig their nest and roost cavities in living pine trees, not mostly in dead wood. Digging a cavity can take one to six years, so having enough suitable trees is a key limit for their habitat.

Researchers Jeffrey R. Walters, Carole K. Copeyon, and J.H. Carter III installed artificial cavities in 20 previously unoccupied sites. Eighteen were subsequently occupied, while none of the 20 control sites were used. The work produced 12 new social units, mostly involving former helper birds and dispersing first-year birds.

The experiment showed that if there are too few cavities, birds can’t form new groups. People can help by making cavities.

So, an artificial cavity is more than just a hole in a tree. It can also open up the social system for these birds.

The bird also brings part of the forest with it.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers also have an unusual social system. The Fish and Wildlife Service describes a breeding group as a male and female with up to six nonbreeding adult helpers. But six is the outer limit, not the usual arrangement. The 2003 recovery plan says most groups consist of a breeding pair with no helpers or one helper, while groups may contain as many as four helpers.

This makes the helpers even more important.

Helpers raise young, defend the territory, and dig cavities. The 1992 experiment found that many birds moving into new sites were former helpers or young birds leaving other groups.

Next is one of the strangest parts of the habitat story: the fungus.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers favor older pines whose heartwood fungal activity can soften. In 2016, Michelle A. Jusino and colleagues reported experimental evidence that the birds themselves help move fungal communities into the cavities they excavate. Researchers compared artificial excavations birds could access with others they could not. The accessible excavations developed fungal communities more like completed natural cavities, and samples from the birds contained fungal communities similar to those found in the excavations.

The bird doesn’t just find rotten wood left by the forest. It actually helps make the wood easier to dig out.

This matters because the cavity is the main bottleneck. Fire keeps the forest open. Old pines provide the material. Fungi help change the wood. The woodpecker digs the cavity. Helpers support the breeding group and defend the territory.

Fire, cavities, helpers, and ongoing management are not separate conservation ideas. They all work together as parts of one system.

There isn’t just one local count.

The Manchester State Forest management plan reports five clusters in Compartment 1. It also says Manchester State Forest is not a recovery site and that the forest uses biologists associated with the adjacent Poinsett Weapons Range to help monitor its birds.

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2022 Species Status Assessment counted 32 active clusters in the broader Manchester-Poinsett population in 2015. That population is larger than the state forest and includes habitat in the surrounding area.

The neighboring Poinsett Electronic Combat Range is a separate federal property. A 2014 U.S. Air Force report said the range had five clusters in 2001 and that recent counts had reached 27. The article was published Nov. 6, 2014, but “recent counts” does not identify a more precise survey. These figures should not be added together or used as a current countywide count. The five-cluster Manchester number is from the December 2021 state forest plan. The 32-cluster Manchester-Poinsett number is from 2015. The Air Force’s 27-cluster number is from a 2014 report without a precise survey date.

For people living in a county where pine forests are part of daily life, this difference matters. The species’ future depends not just on protected areas, but also on whether land managers can keep the right conditions for many years.

Recovery changed the bird’s status, but not the main problem.

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s final rule contains an important qualification to its own downlisting.

The agency concluded that the red-cockaded woodpecker no longer meets the Endangered Species Act’s definition of endangered. At the same time, it determined that the species remains threatened because it could become endangered again in the foreseeable future.

The Service also says it hasn’t fully met any delisting criteria because those require natural cavities. The agency says the species responds well to active management and depends on conservation efforts. It also notes that current management does not guarantee these efforts will continue or adapt to future threats, like stronger hurricanes.

The Southern Environmental Law Center raised a different concern. Ramona McGee, a senior attorney and Wildlife Program leader with the organization, argued in response to the 2024 decision that the Service had not met the recovery-plan criteria necessary to reduce protections.

The Service reached a different conclusion. It found that 15 out of 20 designated populations met the population-size goal for downlisting, but none of the delisting criteria were fully met.

A 2026 peer-reviewed study adds another piece to the picture. Lauren D. Pharr and her colleagues examined long-term breeding data from three populations — Sandhills in North Carolina, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. They found no support for the idea that increasing population density caused the recent rise in partial brood loss. At the study sites, reproductive outcomes did not vary with density, while other factors such as weather, predation, and habitat quality remained possible explanations.

The study did not establish a single cause for the increase in brood loss. It did rule out one obvious explanation: The birds were not simply losing more young because successful recovery had crowded them together.

Jeffrey Walters, one of the authors of that 2026 study, was also one of the researchers behind the 1992 cavity experiment.

Those studies are 34 years apart. The main question has changed from whether a population can be rebuilt to what happens after recovery starts.

A species can recover but still need ongoing help.

The bird has returned to a landscape that people now manage differently. That work needs to continue until the trees can catch up. South Carolina landowners can take part in one practical way: through the state’s voluntary Red-cockaded Woodpecker Safe Harbor Program. Administered by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources under a 1998 agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service, the program is intended to provide conservation benefits while removing regulatory restrictions for landowners who voluntarily restore or enhance suitable habitat. SCDNR encourages landowners interested in improving upland pine habitat but concerned about additional regulatory restrictions if their red-cockaded woodpecker population increases to enroll.

Manchester State Forest is another place to see how the bigger system works on public land. The forest is open for activities like hiking and bird watching, but visitors should follow posted rules, closures, and hunting-season precautions. You might not see a red-cockaded woodpecker, but the real lesson is in the landscape. Open pine woods are not just what a forest looks like without management; they are often the result of careful planning.