On Wednesday, four conservation groups sought federal protections for the black-backed woodpecker under the Endangered Species Act. The John Muir Project, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance filed the petition together.

Less than 2,000 of the woodpeckers remain in the dense forest stretching from Oregon’s Eastern Cascades to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Another 800 live in South Dakota’s Black Hills. The woodpecker’s populations are threatened by what environmentalists are calling excessive logging, meant to reduce forest fires.

KBOO’s Zeke Harrington spoke with Karen Coulter, Director of the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, about the petition.