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Buddy Hollis [00:00:02] Red-cockaded woodpecker. Red-cockaded woodpecker.

Buddy Hollis [00:00:05] Now, the people that really deserve the accolades for restoring the red-cockaded woodpecker are Parks and Wildlife and Temple-Inland. I know it seems kind of odd: keep bringing up a timber company. But these people, actually we're sorry that they have sold out now, because they were our friends. They worked with us and they helped restore things. They would restore the red-cockaded woodpecker to their property up at Scrappin' Valley.

Buddy Hollis [00:00:39] Now, the problem for those of you that don't know the red-cockaded woodpecker: the red-cockaded woodpecker has to have a living tree to make a nest. Well, the only living tree that will work is a tree that has red heart disease, which tends to soften the center of the tree. So that means, first of all, a little guy has got to find a sick tree. And the second of all, he's got to find one that's old enough to be big enough to have a red heart disease.

Buddy Hollis [00:01:11] Now these trees live for, don't even really mature good for 60 or 75 years. And what are the two things that the modern-day forester is not going to allow to grow in his woods? Generally, it's a sick tree. And second, why let that sucker grow to 75, when you cut it at 25 and get some money out of it?

Buddy Hollis [00:01:36] So they had problems.

Buddy Hollis [00:01:37] Then, I believe it was, y'all might remember. I'm not sure of the date, but 1988, Hugo, Hurricane Hugo hit South Carolina, wiped out hundreds of red-cockaded woodpecker cavity trees. Now it takes about two years for them to dig a hole. So here they have hundreds of red-cockaded woodpeckers, no nest.

Buddy Hollis [00:02:02] So some guy says, "Why don't we take a common loblolly pine, cut a notch in it? Make a fake hole in it, stick it up in a tree and see if that will work?" People tell him, "You're crazy, man. There's no way that'll work." They said, "Let's try.".

Speaker [00:02:18] They did and it worked. That's what we've got up here in Scrappin' Valley. Now we've got the artificial nests. Now probably we like to think we're going to bring something back and it's gonna stay there forever, on its own. Probably not. Probably that's is the only way we'll be able to keep the red-cockaded woodpeckers is to keep providing nests for it. But that's much better than letting it go. 'Cause extinction's forever.