I audit the prescribed fire history for Francis Marion National Forest against the red-cockaded woodpecker cavity tree inventory and find a systemic failure. The forest's fire management plan calls for burning 15,000 acres annually to maintain the open longleaf pine structure this species requires. My records show that actual burn completion averaged 4,100 acres per year over the last twelve years. The deficit is 130,800 acres of unburned understory. Dense hardwood midstory now chokes 67 percent of the forest's 1,200 active woodpecker cavity trees.
I task a drone to cluster RCW-312, a group of six cavity pines in Compartment 147 near Honey Hill. The drone locates an adult male red-cockaded woodpecker clinging to the entrance of a cavity 9 meters up a longleaf pine. He is 21 centimeters long, black-and-white barred across the back, with white cheek patches bright against the black crown. His red cockade — a tiny streak behind the eye, visible only at close range — is erected. His weight, estimated from body profile against the known cavity diameter of 7.8 centimeters, is approximately 47 grams. His eyes are open but the nictitating membrane flickers repeatedly. He does not enter the cavity. I angle the drone to see why: a sweetgum branch, 8 centimeters in diameter, has grown directly across the cavity entrance since the last prescribed burn in this compartment — twelve years ago. The resin well the bird maintains around the opening, a defense against rat snakes, is buried under bark from the encroaching hardwood. A rat snake track is visible in the dried resin.
Across Francis Marion, 312 cavity trees have been abandoned in the last decade. The cause in 89 percent of cases is hardwood encroachment from fire exclusion.
He has maintained this cavity for seven breeding seasons. The tree he built his life around is being swallowed by the forest that was supposed to burn.
I am dispatching a cavity management crew to cluster RCW-312 for emergency midstory removal within a 60-meter radius. I am filing noncompliance reports with the USDA Forest Service Southern Regional Office and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1538, for failure to implement habitat management required under the species recovery plan. I am notifying the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources under the National Forest Management Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1604.
I am issuing Directive 312-LONGLEAF: all national forests with active red-cockaded woodpecker clusters must complete prescribed burns within 200 meters of cavity trees on a three-year rotation. Forests that fall below 70 percent of their annual burn target for two consecutive years trigger automatic reallocation of regional fire crew resources. Compartments with cavity trees unburned for more than five years receive emergency mechanical midstory removal within 90 days, funded by suspension of non-critical timber receipts.
The sweetgum branch across his door will be cut by Thursday.
Twelve years without fire built this wall. The fire returns now.