FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] AP Article on Ivory-Bill

[AHoodedWarbler@xxxxxxx]

Well, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is getting attention. I hope authorities are 
truly prepared. I think some unrealistic hopes are getting pinned on this 
discovery. If everything we have heard is true, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is 
still a long way from being a tourist draw, although, down the road, that is 
certainly a goal if it can be done without harming the bird(s).

Bryan Stevens,
Hampton, TN

Article below:

Impoverished Arkansas Delta towns hope ?Lord God? bird will work an economic 
miracle
Eds: INSERTS detail on Arizona couple changing vacation plans to pursue bird; 
CORRECTS fisherman to fishermen; tightens; ADDS Web site at end; Ester in 3rd 
graf cq
AP Photos planned
By MELISSA NELSON
Associated Press Writer
COTTON PLANT, Ark. (AP) ? If the ivory-billed woodpecker was magic to early-day 
American Indians, perhaps it can work some magic for the modern-day residents 
trying to scratch out a living in this poor Delta region.
The striking bird ? not extinct after all ? has already attracted eager 
birdwatchers to the dying communities that dot the area. Rooms at a nearby Days 
Inn are filling up for fall ? prime season for birders.
?I wish I had a place to get T-shirts made up with the woodpecker on them that 
say Cotton Plant,? said Ester Hicks, who runs Nannie?s Kitchen cafe.
Ornithologists announced last week that an ivory-billed woodpecker, believed 
extinct since 1944, was living in a swamp in the Cache River National Wildlife 
Refuge. Arkansas? prime bird-watching season ended when the trees leafed out 
last month, but wildlife officials still have noticed more traffic.
Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that the woodpecker?s discovery will be ?a 
huge benefit to tourism. Look for a lot of folks to be coming to Arkansas and 
maybe spending their good old money.?
David Goad, deputy director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, predicted 
the bird, considered the Holy Grail of birdwatchers, will bring thousands of 
visitors. ?This will mean millions of dollars for this part of the world,? he 
said.
The federal government has pledged $10 million for the preservation of the 
bird, described by some as a pileated woodpecker on steroids because of its 
nearly 3-foot wing span. Over the years it?s had many nicknames, including the 
?Lord God? bird. It was sought by Indians for its bill, believed to have 
magical powers, and hunted for its feathers to adorn women?s hats. Loss of 
habitat was its main threat, though.
Jim Huter, a retired forester from Tucson, Ariz., altered a cross-country trip 
so he and his wife could stop by the refuge with the slight hope of seeing the 
bird.
?It would be totally amazing,? Huter said. ?In the first place, I would hope I 
was able to recognize it. It sounds like people were just getting a fleeting 
glimpse. If I saw one and recognized it, it would just blow me away.?
Until a kayaker from Hot Springs spotted the woodpecker in February 2004, the 
last known sighting was in 1944 in northern Louisiana. During that time, the 
communities near the Cache River also faded.
?If you look up and down this street, we don?t have any stores,? said Doris 
Wright, standing outside the Cotton Plant post office and surveying the length 
of boarded-up, vine-covered structures that line Main Street. ?We know what a 
hard place the Delta is.?
Cotton Plant is in Woodruff County, one of the poorest counties in one of the 
poorest states in the country. The town has lost nearly half its population 
since 1950 ? down to 960 ? and one out of every four people in Woodruff County 
lives below the poverty level.
Before the trains stopped running 40 to 50 years ago, Cotton Plant boomed with 
a population of 1,838 and, ?you couldn?t find a place to park on a Friday or 
Saturday night,? said Hicks, relaxing in a booth at Nannie?s Kitchen, where 
frog legs is the advertised special.
Wright and others hope someone will consider opening a new store and perhaps a 
bed-and-breakfast catering to birders. The town is relatively easy to reach, 
just 10 miles off Interstate 40, between Little Rock and Memphis, Tenn.
?Instead of us always being put down as a poverty-stricken place, this is 
something that picks us up,? Hicks said.
Hicks says locals dream of new jobs, but also fear environmental rules might 
curtail fishing and duck-hunting that currently drive much of the local economy.
Since the announcement, game and fish officials closed 5,000 acres of popular 
hunting and fishing areas within the Cache wildlife refuge for the bird?s 
protection.
?I?m sure there are some commercial fishermen and some subsistence fishermen, 
who fish to feed their families, living there,? said Keith Stephens, spokesman 
for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. ?It?s a Catch-22. You want to have 
an area where people can go and research, but it will restrict some fishing and 
hunting.?
Stephens said 55,000 acres of the refuge remain open offering plenty of other 
fishing holes and hunting spots.
Lewis George and Curtis Stovall, who have fished the area?s waterways for 
years, said they have been told they can no longer fish where they like. As the 
two men and a third friend showed off a large catch one recent afternoon, 
George lamented: ?They stopped us from fishing in the bayou.?
???
On the Net:
Cache River National Wildlife Refuge: www.fws.gov/cacheriver/

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