After almost 50 years, red-cockaded woodpeckers are back at Sprewell Bluff WMA!

The red-cockaded woodpecker, or RCW, is an endangered bird species once found throughout the southeastern U.S. However, habitat loss has drastically reduced their populations and the species was last documented at Sprewell Bluff in 1976.

Crews from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources brought fire back to Sprewell Bluff in 2001, followed by years of timber thins, longleaf pine planting, and hack-n-squirt efforts to control hardwoods. Following the hard work to restore longleaf pine woodlands beneficial to these birds and other wildlife, three pairs of RCWs were transported from Fort Stewart and released into artificial nest cavities on the WMA. This process of translocation was coordinated through federal and state conservation agencies with the hope the birds take to their new home and begin raising young starting this spring, ending the species’ long absence from these woodlands.

This project was funded by the Georgia Ornithological Society, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Knobloch Family Foundation, and the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program. More translocations are planned for the coming years. The hope is Sprewell Bluff WMA will someday support about 25 cluster sites of red-cockaded woodpeckers.