Wildlife Action Plan to Benefit Arkansas Wildlife, Including the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
It’s baaaaack!
No, it’s not the latest horror movie villain that’s come back from the dead. It’s the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. The striking, proud-looking bird was long thought to be extinct, a victim of decades of poor forestry practices and unbridled growth throughout its habitat in the Southeastern United States.
But fifty years since the last Ivory-Billed Woodpecker was sighted in northern Louisiana, birders, biologists and scientists are buzzing with excitement with the news that’s on everyone’s lips: the bird is back.
Our natural areas are full of all kinds of pleasant surprises. This one came in a place called the Big Woods – a sprawling cypress and tupelo swamp in the heart of Arkansas’ Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. Until now, the refuge has been a place Arkansans enjoyed for peace, solace, and to carry on long-time family traditions. All that anyone knew of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker was a few grainy photographs taken of the bird in flight, some time in the 1930’s. But, thanks to the actions of the Arkansas Fish and Game Commission and the Arkansas Nature Conservancy, the land was conserved, giving the bird a chance to survive.
Wildlife biologists, acting on reports from birders who claimed to have heard the woodpecker’s distinctive “Pop-pop,” staked out prime habitat for literally months on end. Finally, after they spent almost nine months standing in a swamp, a single individual revealed himself. And the bird’s survival had been established.
Now, the challenge is to protect the bird, and the place he lives. So Arkansas officials, together with scientists, sportsmen, conservationists, and members of the community, have created the Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan to conserve wildlife and the places they live.
The plan is good for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. But more importantly, supporting the Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan will be good for all Arkansans as well. Conserving wildlife and natural places in Arkansas will conserve the family traditions like hunting and fishing that generations of Arkansans have enjoyed in these special places.
But it’s not just outdoors enthusiasts who have a stake in protecting the Woodpecker and the places it lives. “The health of wildlife is often an ‘early indicator’ of disease and pollution that can affect us all,” said Arkansas Park Ranger Sarah Flowers. “Arkansas’ Wildlife Action Plan will protect clean water and air, making both wildlife – and the people who enjoy it—healthier. That’s something we can all get behind,” noted Flowers.
Conservation efforts like the Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan make real sense for the bottom line. The Action Plan is proactive – seeking to conserve wildlife and habitat now, before they become more rare -- and more costly – to protect in the future. Noted Professor Martin Hamburger, Chairman of the University of Arkansas’ Department of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences notes, “As a scientist, I like the research that went into the plan. As a taxpayer, I like that it’s a cost-effective way of getting the work done.”
Back in the Big Swamp along the Cache River, a woodpecker continues his job of looking for food in the trunk of a dead tulip tree. Meanwhile, conservationists in Little Rock and Washington are looking for ways to give him a little company.