Examining RCW management changes in the 2003 Recovery Plan using habitat mapping

D. J. Lipscomb 1 and T. M. Williams 2

Clemson University, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources (1)
Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science (2)

In 1998 we developed the ARC-INFO AML program RCWFAT to map and evaluate nesting and forage habitat in relation to the federal and private landowner guidelines. Those guidelines specified minimum requirements of RCW habitat which were incorporated into a reporting module of the RCWFAT program. With the program one could quickly map the boundaries of cluster forging areas and evaluate stands within those areas to determine habitat quality as specified in the guidelines. In the Recovery Plan, approved last year, there have been a number of changes in habitat criteria. With one small exception, the geometric definition of foraging areas does not change between the guidelines and the Recovery Plan. The Recovery Plan now lists ten habitat criteria that must be met in stands on 120 acres within the cluster forage area. RCWFAT was modified to evaluate RCW habitat on the Oakmulgee Ranger District in relation to the Recovery Plan. Modification of the program was relatively simple with addition of “If” statements that tested each criterion. The recovery plan has a significantly greater data requirement than the previous guidelines. These data requirements cannot be met with data that is normally collected for commercial forest product inventories. ON the Oakmulgee only six of the ten criteria could be evaluated. However, we still found that none of the RCW clusters on the ranger district met the new recovery standard, although approximately fifty percent of the clusters were satisfactory under the old guidelines. The Recovery Plan has replaced simple criteria, based on standard inventory data, with more specific requirements based on the latest understanding of RCW ecology. These new criteria expand the data requirements for evaluation and also create a more complicated environment for management planning.

Keywords: red-cockaded woodpecker, recovery plan, habitat mapping

(presentation)