Prior to settlement by Europeans, the Missouri Ozarks had vast forests of shortleaf pine, estimated at 6.6 million acres. Pines grew well at drier sites on ridgetops and west and southwest-facing slopes in rocky or sandy soils. These forests had widely spaced trees with grassy understory maintained by periodic fires, either started by indigenous people or lightning. Early stories tell of forests so open that a rider could gallop through without striking a branch. In wetter or north-facing slopes or on heavier soils, oaks were mixed with pines or pure stands of oaks occurred.
We have few accounts of these pristine forests and the animals that lived in them. The earliest chronicle dates to 1818, when Henry Rowe Schoolcraft mentioned elk, turkeys, and black bear commonly. It would fall to a trained observer to record the smaller wildlife, at a time just before these forests were lumbered.
Edward Seymour Woodruff was born in New York City in 1876. He graduated from Yale University, later earning a master’s degree from Yale School of Forestry. He was then appointed State Forester of New York in 1907. It is unclear exactly why, but Woodruff spent March 10-May 15, 1907 in Shannon and Carter counties. He made detailed observations in pine forests at a time when they were being quickly logged.
Woodruff stated, “At the time of my visit, this section of the county was still clothed with a virgin growth of pine and oak forest, of which the characteristic birds were Turkeys, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Bachman's Sparrows, and Pine Warblers. Unfortunately this forest is doomed, for a lumber company was even then building a railroad into the heart of the timber with a view to commencing lumbering operations at once...”
The woodpecker, sparrow, and warbler are birds of open pine forests, or at least are most common in these woodlands. Today, the woodpecker is extinct in Missouri, the sparrow is very rare, and only the warbler is still common and occurs in all types of pine forest. Woodruff found the Red-cockaded Woodpecker “constantly” in the pine forest, and Bachman’s Sparrow commonly in uncut pine and oak-pine forest. He also saw a pair of the pine-dependent Brown-headed Nuthatch on March 19, and noted they were breeding. No sightings of this species occurred in Missouri thereafter.
Clearing of the vast pine forests continued unabated through the early 1900s, with no provision for replacing the pines. Shortleaf pines require periodic fire or oaks eventually become more prevalent. Additionally, seed disperses only a short distance from mature trees. Settlers burned woodlands annually to control ticks and promote forage for livestock, which kills pines and favors oaks with their deep root systems.
The last of the stands of virgin pine stood in the area west of Round Spring in Shannon County. It would be logged in 1946, and one group of observers made the last sightings of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers that spring. A narrow strip of forest along Highway 19 remained uncut.
The man to which we owe the valuable historical observations of pine forest birds, E. S. Woodruff, survived less than two years after his Missouri visit. He succumbed to typhoid fever in January 1909.
Missouri’s pine forests are returning, though. The U. S. Forest Service, Mark Twain National Forest, and other governmental and non-governmental organizations are restoring pure pine forests in the central Ozarks by prescribed fire, selective removal of oaks, and most recently, release of Brown-headed Nuthatches. The hope is for future re-introduction of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.
