Texas Fauna Project

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

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Clif Ladd, a consulting wildlife biologist, recalls studies he did for TXDOT on road expansions that might affect the rare red-cockaded woodpecker. He points out that these project-by-project mitigation efforts do not address secondary habitat impacts from development that the improved roads enable, nor on the statewide changes in land uses and habitat availability. He recommends a real estate transfer fee as a way to fund land protection that would counter these big-scale impacts.