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Posted May 26, 2005
From the Arkansas Democratic Gazette
Team to Look at Protecting Woodpecker While Letting Public See It
By Katherine Marks
Over the next two years, a group of ornithologists, environmentalists and the heads of wildlife agencies will draft an ambitious plan to protect the rediscovered ivory-billed woodpecker, officials announced Wednesday. "I don’t know that we’ve ever created or will create a recovery plan quite like this one," said Sam D. Hamilton, southeast regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hamilton announced the formation of a recovery team at a news conference Wednesday in Brinkley, close to where the bird was spotted last year for the first time in 60 years.
The team will, among other things, study the bird’s habitat, try to document more sightings of the bird and plan ways to accommodate bird-watchers expected to flock to the area from around the world.
Kayaker Gene Sparling of Hot Springs spotted the bird flying over the Cache River in February 2004. His Web postings drew the attention of ornithologists from New York and Alabama, and soon a research team was in Arkansas. The team worked in secret for a year, going public last month with the news that the bird was no longer relegated to history books.
The recovery effort will be immense, in part because of the bird’s range, Hamilton said. Historically, he said the bird could once be found "in the southeast along the Atlantic seaboard through Florida across the Gulf of Mexico to the great bottomland hardwoods and the longleaf pine habitats up the Mississippi." "As exciting as it is in Arkansas, I can tell you that in South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, there is a great buzz now about the ivory-billed woodpecker," Hamilton said. "Having said that, the bird is found in one place right now, right outside Brinkley, Arkansas, so it’s exciting to be here."
The recovery team will have an executive committee and three working groups to study the bird’s habitat, biology and how best to manage the area in which it was found, balancing conservation with public recreation, he said. The executive committee should have its first meeting in late June.
Hamilton said the team needs to determine how much habitat the bird needs; how it will be surveyed next year and in the future, including other locations where it will be sought; what kind of wood it needs; the makeup of the woods that comprise its habitat; and the age of the trees.
The largest woodpecker in the United States, the ivory-bill stands about 20 inches tall and has a wingspan that can reach 3 feet. The males have red feathers on their heads, and the birds’ white beaks were once coveted by Indians who thought they possessed magical powers. Its beauty was so revered that it was dubbed the "Lord God bird" because legend has it that those who laid eyes on the bird would often exclaim: "Lord God, what a bird."
The bird’s re-emergence was front-page news across the country. "This is one of the rarest birds certainly in North America," Hamilton said, and news of the sighting has already increased tourism in the area. "There has been a marked increase of visitation to this part of Arkansas," Hamilton said. A recent birding festival in Clarendon drew about 2,500 visitors — three times the normal number for the annual event, he said. Birding tours from as far away as England have been calling, expressing interest in the area.
The Cache River National Wildlife Refuge’s dense foliage and low water make it hard to reach the bird’s habitat. "It’s a very difficult place to get in and actually see the bird at this point," Hamilton said. "The habitat is still in good shape, [since] the area has not been overdeluged by the number of visitors."
But an increase in visitors is expected as the leaves drop in the fall, Hamilton said. The team will look at ways to allow public access to the area, such as the construction of observation towers, walkways or additional parking, he said.
A 5,000-acre area in the refuge where the bird has been spotted will be off-limits to the public while the recovery team works. Surveys are planned for the fall. Researchers spotted the bird 15 times over the past year, capturing a four-second video of the woodpecker in flight. "We’re optimistic that more birds are out there," Hamilton said.
Members of the executive committee that were announced Wednesday are Hamilton; Scott Henderson, director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission; John Fitzpatrick, a Cornell University ornithologist who was involved in the search for the woodpecker; James Tate, science adviser to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton; and John Bridgeland, president and chief executive officer of Civic Enterprises, a public policy firm.
Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, district engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Vicksburg district; Kirk Duppes, a member of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s national board; Nancy Delamar, director of The Nature Conservancy’s south-central division; Peter Roussopoulos, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Southern Research Station; and Larry Wiseman, president and chief executive officer of the American Forest Foundation.
Leaders of the working groups are Jon Andrew, chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System, who will be chairman of the steering committee; Ken Rosenberg, director of conservation science at Cornell University’s ornithology laboratory, who will lead the biology working group; and Kenny Ribbeck, forestry programs manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, who will co-lead the habitat management and conservation working group along with Tom Foti, chief of research with the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission.
David Goad, deputy director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and Scott Simon, state director for The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, will be co-chairmen of the Corridor of Hope conservation working group.