The red-cockaded woodpecker, a native bird of the southern US, is an endangered species because the older age pine forests it requires for nesting and roosting have been cleared throughout most of its range.

Many migratory bird species, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and other native wildlife benefit from these management practices.

During the early 19th century the European settlers arrived in abundance and began to clear the land to plant a variety of crops.

With the combination of soil infertility, the boll weevil outbreak on remaining cotton and the Great Depression, there was wholesale abandonment of the barren eroded land in the 1930s.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.