RedCockadedWoodpecker_DontCutAnymore_Lorenz_Sheridan_AspenCO_24August2021_Reel4067.mp3

Sheridan Lorenz [00:00:00] As for why it developed somewhat into a preserve, and ultimately a Conservancy? It didn't start that way, it was for family recreation.

Sheridan Lorenz [00:00:12] But it just so happened that my father, and my mother, too, they really loved the older trees and they didn't want to cut them.

Sheridan Lorenz [00:00:20] Prior to that, it had been a timber operation. We did actually sort of inherit a timber man. His name was Joe Cliff Moke, and he stayed on as the manager of the property.

Sheridan Lorenz [00:00:33] At that point, it was purchased along with Mitchell Energy and Development Company. As I said, it was going to be Phase Two of the Woodlands.

Sheridan Lorenz [00:00:41] When we took it on as our private land, we still kept the timber man, that man, Joe Cliff Moke, who had been the timber specialist, or managed the timber operation for Mitchell Energy. So he stayed on for the private land and, for ours, which became ours. And my father asked him not to cut the old trees.

Sheridan Lorenz [00:01:07] That's exactly why we ended up with the red-cockaded woodpecker, because that was purchased in 1964. Well, at that point, the trees were only about 45 years old. There'd been a major, major clearcut in 1919, in the whole region really, as they built Texas really with that lumber.

Sheridan Lorenz [00:01:29] And so my father, you know, in 1964 said "Don't cut anymore, let's let the old forest come back." And so the older trees were kept intact.

Sheridan Lorenz [00:01:42] And which meant by 1989, when we were notified that we had this high concentration of red-cockaded woodpecker, at this point they were whatever 60 years old or older, something, not sure of the math there. But at the point where 60 years old is the reason, when, they tend to develop red heart (and not every single one does develop the red heart).

Sheridan Lorenz [00:02:00] But that's the reason why the RCW was able to penetrate those, those trees to make a nest.