Why is the red-cockaded woodpecker endangered?
Red-cockaded woodpeckers have become endangered due to population declines, largely brought about by habitat destruction attributed to logging, development and aggressive control of forest fires, which historically maintained the open pinelands that RCWs require. These actions have wiped out most of the South’s long leaf pine forests and put a stop to regular burning necessary to maintain most healthy pines. Almost 97 percent of the red-cockaded woodpecker habitat has been lost in the past 100 years.
