Experts Seek Protection For Woodpeckers
MERCED, Calif. (AP) -- Two environmental organizations are calling on California officials to protect a woodpecker species that was once abundant in the Central Valley.
The black-backed woodpecker's numbers have dropped substantially as its favored habitat -- burned-off forests -- has been reduced by intense post-fire logging and fire suppression efforts, the John Muir Project and the Center for Biological Diversity told the Merced Sun-Star.
The state's Fish and Game Commission was recently petitioned to list the bird as endangered or threatened, according to Justin Augustine, a staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The commission is expected to make a decision on the request after receiving a recommendation from fish and game staff.
"We think the evidence is pretty clear that it should be listed," said Chad Hanson, director of the John Muir Project.
The black-backed woodpecker is a secretive and rarely spotted bird notwithstanding its recent declines, according to a 2001 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
The bird's population tend to increase suddenly around fires and outbreaks of wood-boring insects in central Alaska, northern Canada and the mountainous regions of California, the New England states, the Black Hills mountain range and the Upper Great Lakes.
The woodpeckers rely on burned trees for food and nest sites.
Hanson said the bird's numbers are suffering in all its North American habitats, where it is a key indicator of the environmental health of areas that have experienced high-intensity fires.
The conferring of endangered or threatened species status for the bird in California could have substantial effects on the state's salvage logging industry, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
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