February 8, 2002

Too Much Combustion, Too Little Fire

By MALCOLM G. SCULLY

Fire may be one of the keys to the survival of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.

The inconspicuous bird, once widespread in Southeastern pine forests, has been reduced to a population of about 12,000. The chief reasons, biologists believe, are the loss of much of the old-growth pine forests in which the birds live and the suppression of fire in the forests that remain.

"The red-cockaded woodpecker is exquisitely adapted to the fire-maintained pine ecosystem of the