This a special summer for golf in Pinehurst for reasons that go beyond the U.S. Open. Endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers are making national news on the Pinehurst Inc. golf courses too.

This is the first year since the 1995 inception of Safe Harbor, a program that makes protecting the woodpeckers more attractive to landowners, that birds have actually moved onto the enrolled lands.

And the two sites are both on Pinehurst Inc. golf courses — one on No. 6 and one on No. 7. What’s more, one of the sites includes a breeding pair that has already produced two offspring this year.

Peter Campbell, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has been monitoring the Pinehurst sites and was surprised to find a successfully breeding pair.

"Normally when birds get together, they very rarely nest successfully the first year," says Campbell.

The other site, on course No. 7, has a single male.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers prefer to nest in the hollowed-out heartwood of old-growth longleaf pines. Each bird has its own nest, even breeding pairs, and it can take up to 6 years to drill a nest cavity.

It is therefore especially surprising to discover the pair with nestlings since that means the male not only had to find a home for himself and attract a female, but the pair then had to drill or find a second cavity to nest in.

Luckily, Pinehurst Inc. has about 35 man-made cavities for the birds to choose from. The female is living in one of those, as is the single male on course No. 7. The male and the nestlings are living in a natural cavity.

Campbell typically tries to band nestlings between 5 and 10 days after hatching, but the nest was not discovered until the young were already 20 days old, too old to band. Bands help track the growth of the population.

It seems especially appropriate that these first two sites are on Pinehurst Inc.’s property since Pinehurst Inc. was one of the groups instrumental in fashioning the Safe Harbor program and was the first to enroll.

All eight of the Pinehurst courses are a part of the program.

Safe Harbor was created through the collaborative efforts of Pinehurst Inc., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Defense Fund, and local environmentalists. The point of the program is to make it enticing for landowners to have endangered birds found of their property.

The Endangered Species Act provided that if a landowner found an endangered bird on his property, the owner’s behavior would be restricted to prohibit any activities that would harm or harass the endangered species.

"People had a major fear factor," Campbell says. "They were afraid to find out they had woodpeckers on their property."

The Safe Harbor program was created as a way for landowners to attract woodpeckers onto their property and help remove the birds from the endangered list while enjoying protection from federal restrictions.

Since its establishment four years ago, 25 landowners have joined the program. Twenty more should be added to that list within the next six months. This program, which was crafted here in the Sandhills, has been used as a model for several other plans being established across the United States.

Many visitors may notice the roped-off area at the old Golf Hall of Fame site near course No. 2 and wonder why the ropes are there. That is another Safe Harbor site, with an active nest that has two nestlings and two unhatched eggs at last check.

The United States Golf Association is celebrating the environmental efforts of Pinehurst Inc. by including a display on the program as a part of its traveling interactive museum.

"The USGA has been involved in quite a few efforts involving golf and the environment," says Kimberly Erusha of the USGA. She says the display will remain a part of the museum for the remainder of this year.

There will also be a display in the Carolina Hotel of Pinehurst Inc., explaining the program and the resort’s involvement.