Thanks to conservation efforts across the country, including those within the 2,400-acre nature preserve surrounding OUC’s Stanton Energy Center, the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) is no longer endangered. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now lists the species as threatened. While this marks a significant milestone, this does not mean the species no longer needs protection.
To support the continued growth of the RCW population, OUC will maintain its long-running conservation work at SEC. The birds make their nests in holes painstakingly carved into the trunks of longleaf pines – a habitat OUC helps protect with prescribed burns, timber stand and invasive species monitoring, and a twice-yearly census. Today, an estimated 25 RCWs call SEC home, more than double the population in 1995.
Tom Gaboian, Senior Environmental Compliance Specialist with OUC, oversees these efforts, including bringing in outside experts.
Spring is nesting season. From May to July, Chris Harrington, a biologist with environmental consultant Breedlove, Dennis & Associates of Winter Park, keeps a close eye on known nest cavities – marked by GPS – for signs of eggs. If eggs are found, he returns about a week later to check for hatchlings. When these nestlings are between a week and 10 days old, he returns to weigh and measure the birds and place bands on their legs for future tracking and identification.
It’s not an easy process. The nests are located 20 feet up or more, requiring Harrington to strap a specially designed ladder to the trunk and climb until he reaches the tiny hole that is the entrance to the nest, which is pitch black inside and as much as a foot deep. Using a homemade “snare” of surgical tubing and fishing line, he retrieves the newborns and brings them down in a padded bag to be quickly measured and banded, then returned to the nest.
The first banding visit of 2025 was on May 16. Harrington banded four birds. In subsequent visits in June and July, eight more fledglings were banded.
Harrington, who has been tracking RCWs at Stanton since 2009, will try to find these newcomers and track the rest of the population in December, when he conducts a census using a spotting scope to identify these small, fast-moving birds.
In April 2025, contracted wildlife biologist Dr. Monica Folk installed two artificial cavities to replace natural nesting sites in trees that had died. RCWs can take years to carve nesting cavities out of trees, so the artificial versions provide much-needed homes.
Maintaining an ideal habitat is crucial to building up the RCW population. Prescribed burns promote regeneration of longleaf pine seedlings and saplings, as well as reduce taller brush in the forest so that the birds can easily find the ants, spiders, beetles and other bugs they like to eat.
The burns, which also reduce wildfire risk, are required by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida Division of Forestry and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Burns only take place during appropriate weather conditions, and the certified burn experts keep the flames as low as possible and direct its path. Firebreaks are used to ensure the burn stays under control.
The preserve is a mix of pine flatwoods – where you’ll find the RCWs, cypress and mixed forested swamps, freshwater marshes and wet prairies; there are more than 120 plant species. More than 40 animal species call this diverse range of habitats home, including deer, bobcats, foxes, gopher tortoises, sandhill cranes, and bald eagles.
