Pine Tree Farming and
Endangered Woodpeckers
A Safe Harbor for
Both in South Carolina
high-value timber,” he said. “It’s also
a win from other perspectives: the
management practices for RCW’s are
excellent for other wildlife and meet our
goals for forest aesthetics. The same
practices help maintain water quality
and provide a range of recreational
opportunities. Those are the four goals
of the American Tree Farm System—
wood, wildlife, water, and recreation.”
Long-rotation management benefits
endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers,
especially if it applies to mature longleaf
pine forests, ecosystems that have
been reduced by 90 percent because of
conversion to agriculture, loblolly pine
plantations, housing, and highways.
Through Safe Harbor Agreements,
landowners are helping to restore the
piney woods, manage timber land for
profit, and help the endangered species.
Background
In the past, Burris noted, landowners who
wanted to practice long-rotation forest
management were deterred from doing
“It’s a win-win situation,” said
Dr. A. G. “Skeet” Burris about the
Fish and Wildlife Service’s Safe
Harbor Agreement for red-cockaded
woodpeckers (RCW) in South
Carolina. A tree-farmer and Beaufort
orthodontist, Dr. Burris has enrolled
more than 1400 acres of pine woodlands
in the statewide agreement for the
endangered woodpecker.
“It’s a win for landowners who grow
long-rotation forests that produce
so because of concern that mature trees
would encourage woodpeckers to move in,
creating liability under the Endangered
Species Act. Landowners feared
harvest restrictions, fines, and even
imprisonment. It takes the woodpeckers
years to excavate nest cavities in the
older, living trees. In a pre-emptive
approach, landowners cut the trees before
they reached maturity.
A New Approach to Conservation
About a decade ago the South Carolina
Department of Natural Resources
developed a programmatic Safe Harbor
Agreement for the RCW, encouraging
conservation on non-Federal lands
through technical assistance, funding,
and regulatory assurances. Still growing,
the State’s program has 120 landowners
and 110,000 acres. Created by the Service
in 1995, Safe Harbor Agreements
protect participating landowners from
vulnerability to the “take” prohibitions of
the Endangered Species Act in connection
with their otherwise lawful activities.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Eric Spadgenske/USFWS
“It’s a 180-degree change
in approach. We’ve
gone from penalties to
incentives.”
—Dr. Skeet Burris
Photo courtesy of the Burris family
Dr. and Mrs. Skeet Burris on the edge
of a natural pond.
Female Red-cockaded woodpecker.
For the duration of the agreements the
woodpeckers have a safe harbor—and
so do the landowners. At the end of the
agreements, landowners may return the
property to its initial condition through an
enhancement of survival permit, allowing
the removal of the improved habitat or
additional birds, and landowners are
required to notify the Service of “new”
woodpeckers so that the agency can add
them to colonies or establish colonies
elsewhere.
“It’s a 180-degree change in approach,”
Burris said. “We’ve gone from penalties
to incentives. Everybody is on board. We
don’t want to destroy what we’re trying
to save.”
Under the agreements, for a specific
time period landowners provide a net
conservation benefit—typically by
maintaining, expanding, or creating
habitat in the historic range of a species
or facilitating its reintroduction there.
Burris is providing a net conservation
benefit for red-cockaded woodpeckers by
planting longleaf, practicing long timber-harvest
rotations, and conducting annual
prescribed burns. He is also acquiring
property, restoring it, and enrolling it in
the Safe Harbor Agreement to increase
habitat connectivity.
Burris Family’s Vision and Accomplishments
In 1986, Skeet Burris and his wife,
Gail, bought 95 acres of clearcut and
former cropland in Hampton County,
where the trees were about 12 years old.
They named the property Cypress Bay
Plantation. The entire Burris family,
including five sons—Hank, Andy, Ben,
Tony, and Charlie—signed a vision
statement for the land, emphasizing
conservation and sustainable forestry.
Then the Burrises began buying other
properties. Now they own more than
2900 acres and lease another 700. They
spot-thin 40- to 50-year-old loblolly and
slash pine trees, and they plant longleaf
in their place. They burn these stands
regularly, maintaining open, park-like
habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers,
fox squirrels, bobwhite quail, wild
turkeys, and other wildlife.
Benefits of the American Tree Farm
System and Safe Harbor Program
“In joining the Tree Farm System, the
first step is to develop a management plan
for the property,” Burris said, adding
that “This is important as generations
change—to project income for the
future.” He terms the American Forest
Foundation’s Tree Farm System “the
premiere organization” putting family-forest
landowners in the decision-making
business by uniting landowners, loggers,
and the forest industry. A certified tree
farmer since 1991, Burris was named the
South Carolina Tree Farmer of the Year
in 1995, Regional Tree Farmer of the
Year in 1996, and National Tree Farmer
of the Year in 2000.
How does the Safe Harbor
Agreement help landowners?
In South Carolina, the Department
Natural Resources has provided cost-share
grants for activities such as
burning and maintaining fire breaks.
The Service’s Partners Program has also
supplied funding to improve and maintain
habitat. The grants are available to family
forest landowners and, as Burris said,
“The benefits go exactly where they are
intended—on the ground.”
Evolving Land Management
Burris noted that the South Carolina’s
Low Country has changed from mainly
agricultural land to predominantly
commercial timberland. Now the State has
12.9 million acres of forest land, 40 percent
in pine, he said, adding that, in 2006 and
2007, timber-producers were number one
in jobs and payrolls. “People are in favor of
timberland—it is a big employer. Not only
that, people like having forests near them.”
Advocating tree-growing for wood,
water, wildlife, and recreation—and
acknowledging development pressures—
Burris is popular on the lecture-circuit.
He opens his talks with two questions:
“How important is it to you to maintain
open space and how important is it to
control urban sprawl?” To meet these
goals he has a simple answer: “Keep
family-forest landowners in the business
of growing trees.”
The Burris family is getting together in
November for its third annual meeting to
develop a new forest management plan
and update the estate plan. “What will we
burn? What timber will we harvest? What
are the children’s expectations and their
plans for involvement?”
Mrs. Burris added that the children
are interested “probably because early
on they were a part of our labor force.
That gave them ownership, something
we didn’t realize at the time. We’ll be
asking them, ‘What do you think about
this?’ Also, children may not assume
the parents’ vision if it’s not spelled out.
There’s a lot of love in this place. Not
only did it give our family memories and
traditions, but if you can produce a better
environment and a beautiful place to
educate people, it’s ‘win-win’.”
Endangered Species Program
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203
703/358 2171
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/
August 2009
Photo courtesy of the Burris family
Randy Browning/MFWF/USFWS
Randy Browning/MFWF/USFWS
Hand-planting containerized
longleaf seedlings.
Skeet Burris and young Charlie conduct
a prescribed burn.
Bobwhite quail.
