Feds: Relax protections for woodpecker endangered since 1970

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2. I used to see them here but not recently

The land to the east was plantation land with many mature pine trees. Red-cockaded woodpeckers build their nests in live trees and keep the sap running below their nest holes to prevent predator snakes from getting into the holes.

About thirty years ago the plantation traded 1500 acres just to the east for a much large tract in Jefferson County. The new owners developed the land so many of the pines were cut and there are fewer mature ones left for the woodpeckers.

We could still have some on our farm - although the mature pines at the top of the ridge were struck by lightning and died, we have left the pines in the lower pastures to grow over the last forty years. Our neighbor to the north has a large stand of pines on his fifty acres, so there could be red-cockaded woodpeckers there, too.