DOI: 10.5061/dryad.zpc866t8k
title: Synthesis of Red-cockaded Woodpecker management strategies and suggestions for regional specificity in future management

description: The Red-cockaded Woodpecker ( Dryobates borealis , RCW) was listed under
 the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1973 due to significant population
 declines resulting from habitat loss and fragmentation, and the species
 has been intensively managed since then. We reviewed management strategies
 commonly used to conserve the RCW, emphasizing studies conducted after
 publication of the most recent Recovery Plan in 2003, to evaluate the
 efficacy of each strategy across the RCW’s range and identify demographic
 and environmental factors that influence the success of each strategy. Of
 the management strategies reviewed, outcomes from prescribed fire vary the
 most across the RCW’s range because prescribed fire is influenced by the
 site’s vegetation, abiotic conditions, and land use history. The abundance
 of cavity kleptoparasites varies across sites, but kleptoparasite control
 is only a high priority in small RCW populations. The long-term
 effectiveness of artificial cavities and translocations, which are highly
 effective across the RCW’s range in the short-term, requires suitable
 habitat, which is strongly influenced by prescribed fire. Regional
 variation in RCW management may be needed because RCW populations that are
 not in archetypical suitable habitat (sensu Recovery Plan Standards) may
 benefit from management methods that are not suitable for large RCW
 populations in archetypical habitats (e.g. installing many cavity
 restrictor plates and cavity inserts). RCW management strategies have been
 studied most in the South Central Plains and Southeastern Plains
 ecoregions, and more research in other ecoregions would be valuable. We
 encourage consideration of how management varies according to population
 demographics and site characteristics as opposed to a “one-size fits all”
 management approach for the RCW, which inhabits broad geographic ranges
 and sites of varying productivity and will continue to rely on management
 efforts after downlisting or delisting from the Endangered Species
 Act. 
description: We used the Web of Science and Scopus
 research engines to identify studies that examined (1) the influence of
 different management strategies on RCW demographics and population growth,
 (2) the ecological factors that affect RCW abundance at local and regional
 scales, or (3) the relative importance of demographic vs. environmental
 processes when considering the size or location (i.e. ecoregion and
 environmental conditions) of a population. Specifically, we searched
 topics and titles of studies using the phrase ‘Red-cockaded Woodpecker’
 AND one of the following terms: ‘artificial cavity’, ‘budding’, ‘cavity
 tree selection’, ‘community’, ‘decision making’, ‘decline’, ‘demographic
 modeling’, ‘depredation’, ‘dispersal’, ‘environment’, ‘forage’, ‘genetic’,
 ‘habitat’, ‘hurricane’, ‘management’, ‘mortality’, ‘nest’, ‘nest success’,
 ‘population’, ‘prescribed fire’, ‘reproduction’, ‘survival’,
 ‘translocation’, or ‘vegetation’. We accessed Web of Science and Scopus
 intermittently from June 2016 to April 2021. We included studies we found
 through our search if they tested management strategies or investigated
 mechanisms that impact RCW population growth. We located additional peer
 reviewed studies, proceedings from seminars, and book chapters using
 citations from the studies we found using the research engines or through
 recommendations from experts in RCW management. For each source, we
 recorded the study location, sample size, statistical tests, and key
 results, including measurements (e.g., p-value, effect size) that
 reflected the effectiveness of a management strategy or indicated how
 factors influenced RCW population growth. Since our goal was to evaluate
 the response of RCW populations to management after the most recent
 Red-cockaded Woodpecker Recovery Plan, many of the studies we cite were
 conducted and published after the publication of the Recovery Plan in
 2003. However, we also cite earlier studies to provide context and
 describe temporal trends in RCW populations. In total, we found 120
 publications that met our search requirements.
description: Rows containing N/A values in the Management Section or Deemed
 Effective columns indicate the lack of additional management approaches
 tested in the focal study. Rows containing NULL values in the Management
 Section, Deemed Effective, and Population Size columns indicate that the
 focal study was not a management focused study, and therefore, these
 studies were not used to generate Figure 1 presented in the text. However,
 non-management driven studies were used to generate Figure 2 in the text,
 along with the management driven studies used to generate Figure 1. Rows
 containing N/A values in the Ecoregion column indicate that the
 publication was not a location-based study. Rows containing N/A values in
 the Population Size column indicate that the cited study was a computer
 simulation that varied the size of the simulated population.