COMPATIBILITY OF EVEN-AGED TIMBER MANAGEMENT AND RED-COCKADED WOODPECKER CONSERVATION

Old-growth, southern pine forests commonly are considered optimum habitat for redcockaded woodpeckers (Picoides borealis). Trees for cavities and foraging sites are abundant in such areas. However, the economic feasibility and desirability of maintaining substantial areas of forest land in this condition primarily for red-cockaded woodpeckers is being debated. Most participants in these debates recognize the need to extract fiber from the same forests that must sustain the birds. Although considerable information on the basic ecology of this species has been published in the last several years (Lennartz and McClure 1979, Sherrill and Case 1980, Hooper and Lennartz 1981, and others), red-cockaded woodpecker response to habitat modification by timber harvest is unknown. This work examines changes in clan territory size, habitat use, and reproductive success before and after commercial clear-cutting within documented clan territories. Clear-cutting was chosen as the harvesting method for several reasons. First, practically all southern pine is under even-aged management and clear-cutting is a common regeneration cut. Second, the residual trees that remain for 2-4 years following shelterwood and seedtree cuts may mask the response of the bird. And third, clear-cutting results in the most rapid and dramatic habitat change of any harvesting method, thus representing the most severe test of timber harvest influence on the ecology of the woodpecker.