CEMML provides Red-Cockaded Woodpecker conservation expertise in Louisiana

The Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (RCW), an endangered species under the U.S. Federal Government’s Endangered Species Act of 1973, makes its home amongst the longleaf pine forests of the American southeast. Biologists from Colorado State University‘s Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML) are helping Fort Polk, a US Army training installation in west-central Louisiana, ensure the bird’s survival. Through banding efforts that track the bird’s population as well as the installation of artificial nesting cavities, RCW populations have grown since the 1970’s and 80’s to the point that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is considering downlisting the species to “threatened.”