Exploring New Places: South Carolina's Longleaf Pine Forest and the Endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Within South Carolina's Sandhills region, which separates the Atlantic Coastal Plain to the east from the Piedmont Plateau to the west, lies a forest, not of typical eastern hardwoods, but of pines.

For a Californian like me, pines are generally associated with mountains.  But that is not the case for much of the United States.  Forests of Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) once covered over 90 million acres, stretching across the southeastern United States from Virginia to Texas.  Today, these forests remain only in scattered patches, amounting to around two or three million acres.

Traveling between friends in Florence, South Carolina, and relatives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Eric and I charted a meandering course that took us through a few key sites of particular interest (to us): the Longleaf Pine forests of the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge for me, Cowpens and Kings Mountain National Military Parks for Eric, and the Camden Battlefield and Longleaf Pine Preserve for both of us.

Happily, in seeking to preserve pieces of our American history and heritage, National Military Parks preserve wildlife habitat as well.  At Camden, efforts are in place to not only restore the battlefield and increase interpretation to visitors of this historic place, but also to restore 420 acres of Longleaf Pine forest.  As an article by the American Battlefield Trust cleverly states: "Today, the longleaf forests of the Southeast, are suffering from the same fate as the Patriot army in Camden, and have been all but vanquished."

The article continues to draw parallels between the 1780 battle of Camden and the plight of the forests in which it was fought.  The battle was a "colossal Patriot defeat," and though it was a major part of the American Revolution's Southern Campaign, it quickly fell into obscurity.  (Yeah, I'd never heard of it before either.)  The Longleaf Pine forests, though an integral part of the Southern landscape, have also suffered a great defeat, their plight falling out of favor and even common knowledge in the face of extensive commercial timber operations.  You can read more about the long-term forest regeneration plans for the Camden Battlefield and Longleaf Pine Preserve here.

Longleaf Pine forests are characterized by deep sandy soils and open stands of trees.  Beneath the pines grows an understory of scrub oaks and wiregrass, which is perfectly adapted to regular renewal by fire.  To properly manage remaining stands of forest, as well as replant areas in the hopes of restoring degraded habitat, an understanding of this 2-4 year fire cycle is required.  Longleaf Pines are resistant to fire, and their seedlings thrive after an area has burned.  Regular burning serves to reveal bare mineral soil (an ideal seedbed) and reduce competition by clearing out the undergrowth and preventing hardwood trees and shrubs from becoming dominant.

Longleaf Pine forests are home to nearly 900 species of plants, over 60 species of resident and breeding birds (with 20 or more visiting during the winter months), 36 species of mammals, and 170 species of reptile and amphibians, to say nothing of the thriving invertebrate life found here.  A few of the notable mammals of this habitat include six species of bat and three species of squirrel (including the Southern flying squirrel), along with coyotes, foxes, raccoons, skunks, opossum, weasels, shrews, mice and deer.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has identified 29 species associated with Longleaf Pine forests that are considered to be threatened or endangered.  Perhaps most critically, these forests are home to the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis).  With a total population of around 14,000 - 15,000 individuals and a sorely diminished range of suitable habitat, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker is in danger indeed.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker.
NOT my photo.  Accessed from Audubon.org.  Photo credit: Stephen G. Maka/VIREO

The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is a habitat specialist and keystone species, vital to the survival of at least 27 other animal species of the Longleaf Pine forests.  Many of these species, like Eastern Bluebirds, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Brown-headed Nuthatches and Southern flying squirrels, depend on the presence of cavities excavated by Red-cockaded Woodpeckers for nesting.  Red-cockaded Woodpeckers excavate nest cavities in mature pines, ideally those that are 80-100 years old and infected with red heart fungus, which causes the inside of the tree to soften, making excavation easier.  Around the nest cavity, the woodpeckers drill small holes which ooze sticky resin, a deterrent to predators.  Uniquely, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker is the only woodpecker to excavate nest cavities in living trees; other woodpeckers prefer standing dead wood, or snags.  

Since we were visiting the Longleaf Pine forests in August, past the Red-cockaded Woodpecker's breeding season, the ranger in the visitor center at the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge informed me that the sought-after birds had dispersed from their known nesting sites and, basically, could be anywhere within the refuge's 45,000 acres.  But, I had flown across the continent to see the birds of South Carolina, and the rare Red-cockaded Woodpecker was at the top of my list!  Not to be foiled again (I had missed seeing Roseate Spoonbills on more than one occasion), we set out to find this little woodpecker.  Along the short Longleaf Pine Interpretive Trail, the forest was silent, except for the calling of a Mourning Dove (but we did stumble upon a Chuck-will's-widow, a quiet, secretive, nocturnal nightjar that is a fantastic find any day!)  Time was short, but after a couple more fruitless ventures, we stopped for a snack and bathroom break near Lake Bee.

While Eric was in the bathroom, I idly scanned pines adjacent the parking lot in the hopes of spotting my bird.  And something that almost never happens in birding occurred: with binoculars trained on yet another empty tree trunk, a small woodpecker with a black-and-white barred back and large white cheek patch hitched up the trunk, directly into my field of vision, and paused. 

It was my first look at the rare and endangered, but hopefully recovering, Red-cockaded Woodpecker.