NORTH CAROLINA -- The red-cockaded woodpecker is in trouble. Today, there are only around 10,000 of them still left in the entire world. That’s according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

Monday, state officials met in Onslow County to implement a long-term management plan to increase those numbers. They’ll plant a large number of longleaf pines that will support 60 red-cockaded woodpecker families.

The project is also benefiting Camp Lejeune by giving them more space to train. Right now, the woodpeckers nesting on the base force Marines to go around them, sometimes presenting a challenge.

“We kind of lost some of the realism of combat and training that we would like to replicate, let’s say on foreign shores. This allowed us to bring that back and to be able to move in that tactical formation,” said Col. Michael Scalise.

The project costs $20 million and will be paid for by both the Marine Corps and N.C. Wildlife.