| Longleaf pine forests and red-cockaded woodpeckers (or RCWs as they are affectionately called by biologists) are examples of plants and animals once considered quite common across the southeastern United States. During the past century, severe population losses took place due to factors including habitat loss and modification. Exceptions to this trend include residual populations of rare species surviving at locations left relatively pristine. Many of these locations include the over 400 major military installations located through out the United States. As these bases provide for the nation's defense, the need for restrictive access and buffer zones have also protected dozens of rare species and habitats. It is estimated that nationally over 300 federally listed species are on lands managed by the Department of Defense.
The Georgia USFWS Ecological Services office in Brunswick assists the resource staff for a number of military facilities including Kings Bay Submarine Base, Townsend Marine Corps Bombing Range, Moody Air Force Base and Fort Stewart. Because of the large amount of valuable habitat at Ft. Stewart, much of the work with the military is at Ft. Stewart.
Recently, Robert Brooks, biologist at the Brunswick Ecological Services office and Noreen Walsh, Region 4 Assistant Regional Director for Ecological Services attended a Sustainability Summit at Fort Stewart. The Summit is part of a strategic planning process underway to maintain Fort Stewart's mission, environment and community resources. During the summit, attention was called to successful efforts at managing the installation's longleaf pine forest, erosion control, wetlands mitigation bank, and its population of red-cockaded woodpeckers. The successes were attributed to the many successful partnerships developed between Ft. Stewart and natural resource management agencies.
In recognition of their excellent working relationship with the USFWS, the U.S. Army recognized Robert Brooks for his work at Fort Stewart. Brooks was honored for his assistance as the installation adjusts to meet expanded training needs while avoiding conflicts with the Endangered Species Act.
With assistance from USFWS biologists, Fort Stewart staff have devised current conservation strategies to effectively stabilize or increased the installation's populations of rare species. These include the eastern indigo snake, gopher tortoise, striped newt, flatwoods salamander, red-cockaded woodpecker and the bald eagle. Rare fish species include the endangered short-nosed sturgeon and the Atlantic sturgeon. The most notable success story is the largest endangered red-cockaded woodpecker population in Georgia, calling Ft. Stewart's expansive stands of long-leaf pine forests home.
The red-cockaded woodpecker has flourished on Ft. Stewart because of the development of a red-cockaded woodpecker recovery team and implementation of the recovery plan. Ft. Stewart's evidence of successful red-cockaded woodpecker recovery is the contribution of 138 juvenile red-cockaded woodpeckers to USFWS translocation program. These birds are translocated to federal, state, and private lands such as Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Ft. Gordon to help establish and maintain other red-cockaded woodpecker populations. To help other agencies manage red-cockaded woodpeckers the red-cockaded woodpecker recovery team, The Service's red-cockaded woodpecker Coordinator set up a conference on red-cockaded woodpecker's hosted by Ft. Stewart.
The relationship that the USFWS has with Fort Stewart is an excellent example of how government agencies can work together to conserve natural resources while providing for a strong national defense.
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