RE: FW: The Ivory-billed and the IBA

["Dave Rintoul" <drintoul at ksu dot edu>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-birdtalk@utahbirds.org [mailto:owner-birdtalk@utahbirds.org] On
Behalf Of Mark Stackhouse
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 1:57 PM
To: birdtalk
Subject: FW: The Ivory-billed and the IBA

Here's a note from the local folks about the Ivory-billed and the IBA
program there. It's especially of interest to anyone who wants to try to see
this bird, as it has a link to information about where to go to see it.
Apparently there are certain areas off-limits, but they have designated
sites where the bird has been seen that birders can go to look for it.
===

Perhaps a better approach would be to donate the money you might spend on a
trip to Arkansas to the Nature Conservancy, the Cornell Laboratory of
Ornithology, or Audubon. You would even put it into a savings account that
might allow your children to go to Arkansas in a few decades, when hopefully
the population(s) of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers are large enough to not be
affected by too many humans. Or spend the money to travel to someplace else
wher the bird has been reported in the past few decades, and see if you can
help find another population. All of these things would help ensure that
your kids might get to see the bird someday.

The birds apparently did OK for 60+ years without us; I think we should give
them about 60 more. Don't get me wrong; I'd love to see one myself. But the
ego gratification of having that bird on my personal life list is not worth
the very real risk that we will now "love them to death". We don't know
enough about this population; if there are only a couple of birds or a
couple of pairs, they probably don't need more humans in the area. This is
surely one case where birders can see that it is better to err on the side
of caution, and put aside personal desires vis-a-vis their life lists. And,
as noted above, if you have the money to travel to Arkansas, there might be
better ways to spend it.

regards

Dave

Dave Rintoul, Ph.D.                          <drintoul at ksu dot edu>
Biology Division - KSU                            ICBM: 39.18N, 96.34W
Manhattan KS 66506-4901                              VOX: 785-532-0104 
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~drintoul/               FAX: 785-532-6653
Currently on sabbatical leave at the University of Utah

Babe, you're just a wave. You're not the water.
                                - Butch Hancock

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