Sharing his Home with Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers

Red-cockaded woodpecker. Credit: Michael McCloy

Louis Bacon is at it again.

In September, we celebrated the establishment of the 558th unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System: the Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area in Colorado, made possible by Mr. Bacon’s nearly 77,000-acre conservation easement

A few weeks ago, I was out at the 13,000-acre Orton Plantation on the Cape Fear River in southeastern Brunswick County, North Carolina. In 2010, Mr. Bacon purchased an 8,400-acre portion of his ancestral plantation and has been engaged in a variety of habitat restoration activities on the property since.

In particular, Mr. Bacon has been concerned about the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. And he is already helping.

Thanks to his land stewardship at Orton Plantation, a female red-cockaded woodpecker joined the solitary male occupying the territory on Orton Plantation.

[More]