Historic, Archive Document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. * ; aQH76 . D59 -<994 " .. to conserve to the extent practicable the various species offish or wildlife and plants facing extinction..." Diversity for the Future: Science and the Challenge of Saving Endangered Species United States Department of Agriculture • Forest Service Cover Photo: Forest Service scientists are studying the life history of the endangered Karner blue butterfly, found in oak- savannah and pine barrens of the central and southern United States. Science and the machines. We are just beginning to under¬ Challenge of Saving stand the problem of endangered species, not only as a matter of saving individual species, Endangered Species but also in view of their critical ecological and evolutionary roles. Spaceship Earth. When science gave us a How Big Is the platform in space, we saw the planet in its entirety for the first time, in all its splendor— Challenge? and with all its limitations. Gaining access to space was one of humankind's greatest scientific triumphs. The specter of losing such awe-inspiring Saving endangered species on Earth is wildlife as the whooping crane or the grizzly bear prodded our national conscience and an equally imposing challenge, requiring both inspired the Endangered Species Act of 1973. scientific understanding and the development The passenger pigeon and Carolina parakeet of advanced technologies. Many of these were already extinct, found only in photos in technologies are as experimental as those in books and museums. We pledged to reverse space systems, with the added complication the trend. that living organisms are more complex than Delivering on that pledge has proven difficult. Of more than 3,000 species of fish and wildlife and 10,000 species of plants on Trends in Threatened and Endangered Listed Species the National Forests and Grasslands, nearly Number of species listed 250 are federally listed as threatened or 1000 --- endangered. Another 2,250 are designated by the USDA Forest Service as sensitive species whose long-term viability may be at risk. Although species extinction is a natural process, human activity has greatly accelerated losses. As biologist Daniel jantzen has said, "It's as though the nations of the world decided to burn their libraries without bothering to see what's in them." The Biodiversity Convention established at the 1992 Rio Conference voiced global concern over the rampant loss of species. Source: USDA Forest Service ES National Forests and Grasslands _ 6-11-94 and usfws updates □ Other Lands In US 1 Biodiversity and Forest The Kirtland's warbler, restricted to a small Service Stewardship breeding area in Michigan, depends on fire to maintain conditions suitable for Biodiversity is inscribed in the very fabric of nesting under young jack pines. life. It means preserving natural processes of interaction among species and protecting the complex, constantly changing communities and landscapes that arise from them. The Endangered Species Act provided the first legal recognition of the importance of biodiversity in proclaiming that "species of fish, wildlife, and plants are of aesthetic, ecological, historical, recreational, and scientific value to the Nation and its people." Preserving threatened, endangered, and Accordingly, the Act called upon the Nation sensitive species is central to the mission of "to provide a means whereby the ecosystems the Forest Service. With more than 191 upon which endangered and threatened million acres across 1 3 ecoregions, the species depend may be conserved." National Forests and Grasslands are home to one-third of all species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act. As other lands are developed, the importance of the Na¬ tional Forests and Grasslands as a refuge for sensitive, threatened, and endangered species is likely to grow. What Have We Accomplished and What Have We Learned? Saving the endangered Apache The Forest Service is committed to a strong trout requires restoring habitats scientific foundation for its Threatened, protected by natural barriers against introduced trout species Endangered, and Sensitive Species Program. that would overwhelm it. Forest Service research focuses on the pro- 2 cesses and components that make ecosystems The Puerto Rican Parrot and work. We are developing scientifically based Tropical Rain Forest management techniques to preserve ecologi¬ cal processes and to maintain biologically Despite efforts to protect it, the Puerto Rican diverse forests and rangelands with a wide parrot had all but disappeared from the wild array of values and potential products. by 1972, reduced to a single population of 14 Many research efforts that were birds in a remote part of the island. Most of initiated to protect endangered species have the parrot's old-growth tropical forest habitat evolved into broader ecological approaches had been destroyed by human activity, and for restoring and sustaining biological diver¬ reproduction among the remaining few birds A captive breeding program sity. In particular, programs involving the developed cooperatively by was impeded by predation, competition, Puerto Rican parrot, red-cockaded wood¬ researchers in the Forest complex pair formation, small population Service and the Fish and pecker, northern goshawk, and northern size, and a lack of suitable nesting sites. Wildlife Service was critical spotted owl have helped preserve critical Scientists from the Forest Service and to recovery of the Puerto ecosystems while teaching us important Rican parrot, especially the USDI Fish and Wildlife Service worked lessons about ecosystem management and after the devastation of together to improve conditions for the Puerto Hurricane Hugo. the habitat needs of species. Rican parrot. Natural cavities were modified and artificial structures were designed to provide suitable nesting sites and to reduce predation and competition from the pearly- eyed thrasher. Cavities were closed between June and September to minimize swarming by honeybees. Captive birds were bred to produce young parrots, which were substi¬ tuted for wild chicks in the nest (cross- fostering) to enhance genetic diversity. By 1989, the wild parrot colony had grown to about 45 birds. Although nearly half were killed by Hurricane Hugo, joint research and recovery efforts by the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service have already restored the parrot population to prehurricane levels. The next step is to establish new, widely separated parrot colonies to protect the species from disastrous losses in the event of another catastrophe. Young birds will be 3 moved between flocks to promote genetic nearly 90 percent of the trees with active diversity. woodpecker cavities. Overall, about 70 percent of the birds disappeared in the hurricane or during the year that followed. Lesson Learned: Interagency partnerships In a crash program designed to save synergize research on endangered species. the woodpeckers, technicians created nesting and roosting cavities for the birds using new techniques developed by Forest Service and university researchers. Techniques ranged The Red-Cockaded Woodpecker from drilling start holes and completed and Southern Pine Forest cavities (it may take a woodpecker more than 3 years to drill a suitable cavity on its own) to inserting cedar blocks with predrilled cavities The red-cockaded woodpecker drills its into holes cut into trees. By the summer after nesting and roosting cavities in several species the hurricane, 45 percent of all red-cockaded of southern pine, including longleaf and loblolly pine. It selects trees that are infected The endangered red- with heartrot, generally ones that are 80 years cockaded woodpecker was old or more. The bird was once common, but once found in pine forests declined to the point of being listed as throughout the South. Sta¬ tistical research indicates endangered in 1970. Agriculture, urban that hurricanes will con¬ development, and forestry practices com¬ tinue to be a significant bined to reduce the mature piney woods that obstacle to the bird's recovery. provide the bird's habitat. Old-growth stands were replaced with younger, faster-growing trees, and the natural fire that kept pine stands open and free of hardwoods was eliminated. Remaining red-cockaded wood¬ pecker populations are highly fragmented and isolated. It has been difficult to reverse the bird's decline. In 1989, when Hurricane Hugo ravaged the Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina, it devastated the second largest red-cockaded woodpecker population left in the Nation, and the only one known to be growing. In some colonies, winds snapped 4 Artifical cavities that imi¬ woodpecker nests on the Francis Marion tate those made by wood¬ National Forest were in artificial cavities, a peckers now contain more figure that now exceeds 66 percent. This has than half the red-cockaded woodpecker nests on the helped the population to recover dramatically. hurricane-devastated The number of adult birds rose by 56 percent Francis Marion National between 1990 and 1994. Forest. Artificial cavity technology is now widely used throughout the species' range to help small remnant populations survive. Artificial cavities are a springboard to recov¬ ery, but they are not a permanent solution for the bird. Ultimately, the survival of the red- cockaded woodpecker will depend on the Nation's resolve to restore or mimic natural Restoring endangered species will sometimes processes and to recover the bird's old- require that we carefully growth habitat. restore fire as a process critical to ecosystem management. Lesson Learned: Good science and human intervention may be crucial to the survival of rare or endangered species following a natural catastrophe. The Northern Goshawk and Ponderosa Pine Forest in the Southwest A stealthy hunter, the northern goshawk moves silently through the lower forest canopy, searching for prey in the open spaces on or near the forest floor. An interdisciplinary team of ecologists, ornithologists, and land managers found that goshawk habitat is disappearing in Arizona's ponderosa pine 5 forests. Today's dense stands bear little A northern goshawk waits quietly for prey to move in semblance to the open, parklike forests the subcanopy below. described by early settlers in the Southwest. Big trees have been harvested, and aggressive fire control has allowed dog-hair thickets to form, choking out the plant species required by goshawk prey and interfering with the goshawk's ability to swoop down through the trees. Moreover, the goshawk has lost much of its prime nesting habitat in the dense upper forest canopy provided by mature ponderosa pines. The interdisciplinary team found that forests containing trees of various ages provide the best habitat not only for the goshawk, but also for a broad array of prey species. Large old trees and snags contain nesting cavities for squirrels, chipmunks, and many birds. Younger trees and patches of open ground provide forage for grouse and rabbits. Mushrooms sprouting from decaying logs feed rodents, which in turn spread fungi spores throughout the forest in a dynamic hunting skills. But in general, a mosaic of process of natural recycling. small forest openings and stands of varying Can we maintain such recycling ages should be cultivated so that harvested processes in a managed forest? We know stands or trees lost to catastrophe or to enough to get started. Dense thickets should natural processes will always be replaced by be thinned to reduce the danger of cata¬ other parts of the forest that have just strophic wildfire; then low-intensity pre¬ reached maturity. scribed fires can be used to mimic the pro¬ cesses that formed the ponderosa pine ecosystem. Stands of mature trees with dense Lesson Learned: Interdisciplinary efforts to canopies should be retained around known understand the ecology of individual species are goshawk nesting sites. Some trees can be the building blocks of comprehensive, harvested in zones beyond nesting areas, landscape-level strategies. where young goshawks can develop their 6