Members of Stephen F. Austin State University’s student chapter of the Society of American Foresters recently completed a number of conservation projects with multiple organizations in Montgomery County. Pictured, forestry students Chris Longman, Tristan Clayton, Brian Smith and Andre Saenz paint a green band on a cavity tree used by the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker in W.G. Jones State Forest. The bands serve to alert biologists and the public of the tree’s significance.
“I applaud the students for helping make the conservation movement stronger in Montgomery County,” said John Warner, urban district forester for the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Forestry students Chris Longman, Tristan Clayton, Brian Smith and Andre Saenz planted a total of 60 trees, including ten pollinator specific flowering trees on the campus of Conroe ISD’s Runyan Elementary School. The students then moved on to W.G. Jones State Forest, one of the nation’s largest working urban forests, where they painted green bands on 20 red-cockaded woodpecker cavity trees and constructed 25 erosion control structures for use on the property.
For a number of years, the Texas A&M Forest Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department have worked diligently to implement forest management practices to ensure the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker thrives in the urban oasis of Jones State Forest. Warner explained the green bands painted by the SFA students will help biologists and the public support the conservation of the endangered avian species.
“It is a visual for maintaining a non-disruptive distance from the tree of at least 100 feet, as well as being a visual cue to everyone that this is an important habitat tree for the woodpecker,” Warner said.
