Georgia was no different. The population of red-cockaded woodpeckers in Georgia is probably only five percent of its level prior to European settlement, and the woodpecker has been on the federal endangered species list since 1970. Although much forest regenerated, removal of the original pine forests had a devastating effect on the red-cockaded woodpecker because of its unusual life history. The red-cockaded woodpecker depends on old living pine trees. The woodpecker makes its cavities that it uses for roosting and nesting in these types of trees.
Old trees have more heartwood in relation to sapwood than do younger trees.
Resin flow, a defensive response of pine trees to wounding, occurs through the sapwood a layer of living wood closest to the bark. Resin flow can halt invasion by pathogens and beetles. Heartwood, located in the center of the tree, does not conduct resin. Redheart does not kill the tree, but it does digest the non-living heartwood cells, causing them to degenerate and soften, which makes cavity excavation easier. The resin-flow defense is formidable.