Feds greenlight progress with red-cockaded woodpecker

摘要

Trump administration officials today took an environmental victory march as they proposed downlisting the redcockaded woodpecker from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In a high-profile event, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue joined the garrison commander of Fort Benning in Georgia in touting the progress made in recovering the species. "Partnering for conservation has improved the condition of the red-cockaded woodpecker. It also allows us to take this important downlisting step," Bernhardt said, citing the engagement of "public and private interests." Underscoring the latter, Interior lined up support for the proposed downlisting from the likes of Weyerhaeuser Co. and the National Alliance of Forest Owners. "This success has been decades in the making and is a direct result of imaginative, far-reaching, and heroic efforts of private landowners working with the Service to yield significant results," Scott Jones, CEO of the Forest Landowners Association, said in a statement.