Holey homemakers

The feisty red-headed woodpecker has been declining in many parts of the country, but not at the U of M’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, which boasts lots of savanna and the largest known population of the birds in Minnesota. CFANS postdoc Elena West studies these woodpeckers, noting what features of their environment make good habitat for them—and other species. She leads a team of volunteers, land managers, and community scientists from a range of disciplines who study them.