Feds: Relax protections for woodpecker endangered since 1970 Federal officials say a woodpecker declared endangered half a century ago has recovered enough to relax federal protectionsThe red-cockaded woodpecker, a bird declared endangered in 1970 and surviving today in 11 states' scattered longleaf pine forests, has recovered enough to relax its federal protection, officials said Friday. “The red-cockaded woodpecker has flourished to the point that today we can propose to downlist them from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act,” Aurelia Skipwith, director of the U.S. Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the bird's recovery "a tremendous victory for the Endangered Species Act” and not the Trump administration. “Secretary Bernhardt, who is a former lobbyist for the oil and gas industry and other special interests, has been an absolute disaster for endangered species,” Greenwald said in a news release. The Trump administration changed Endangered Species Act rules to end automatic continued protection when a species is moved from endangered to threatened, he noted.

Source: ABC News September 25, 2020 15:43 UTC