150 years before the American Revolution, settlers arriving on our shores found an amazing site— 90 million acres of pine forest, stretching from southeastern Virginia to Florida and Texas. Those trees would become an engine for the British navy, supplying pitch to seal boat hulls; and tar to grease wagon axles.
Scientist Brian Eerden with the Nature Conservancy says farmers cut down more trees to grow crops, and another animal kept longleaf pines from coming back.
"The feral hogs that were throughout southeast Virginia on the coastal plain in the 1700’s, 1800’s – they foraged heavily on the seeds of longleaf pine, the seedlings of longleaf pine, so blocked some natural forest regeneration," he explains. "Then removal of fire. Longleaf pine is a species that is designed to thrive and survive in the environment of fire. If you take that away, other species like loblolly pine will outcompete longleaf. Over the course of 400 years, that forest (if you count the forest by the trees) went down to 200 trees that we could account for."
The destruction took a toll on species that depended on longleaf pines – like the red cockaded woodpecker. A cockade was a ribbon rosette that military men wore on their hats. These small birds are speckled with black and white feathers, but the males have a dash of red on their heads.
They’re also known for their industrious ways. Teams of woodpeckers create cavities in trees over months or years, providing a safe space for nesting. As the forests declined, so did the birds – their numbers falling to about 200 after Hurricane Hugo hit. Again, Brian van Eerden with the Nature Conservancy.
"The Francis Marion National Forest had the largest population of red cockaded woodpeckers range wide, and then the hurricane came through and just leveled the forest, and then they were exposed to the elements and also exposed to predation, so getting birds into cavities is really important for population stability and growth."
That's when scientists began creating cavities in trees to house red cockaded woodpeckers.
"That's a matter of a human establishing an RCW cavity in the course of a couple of hours, which is a lot shorter than an RCW. It could take two years for an RCW or a group of RCWs to excavate a cavity."
And the birds caught one other lucky break when the largest producer of timber in the U.S. — International Paper — decided to sell their land in Virginia. That allowed the Nature Conservancy to buy 5,000 acres. Now, they're doing controlled burns, thinning out some loblolly pines, planting longleafs so more sun to reach the forest floor. As a diversity of plants returned, more insects appeared – ants, beetles, caterpillars, cockroaches and spiders – a buffet for the birds nesting above.
Today, ornithologist Chance Hines scales trees in the Piney Grove Preserve in Sussex County, between Richmond and Hampton Roads. He gently removes baby birds from their nest so he can weigh them and attach tiny leg bands for future identification.
The parents are none too happy, but they quickly return to feed their babies once Hines has put them back.
"They’re still pretty pink. They don’t have a lot of feathers protruding, just starting to come out of the tail, which is what happens on day six. "
The babies struggle against the intruder – sometimes falling asleep, exhausted, in his hands. But they don’t seem to be harmed in any way, and Hines predicts a record number of nestlings -- more than 50 -- will survive, Already the Center for Conservation Biology at William and Mary counts about 150 birds in the area – up from eight 25 years ago.
