Crying wolf?

Cyberthrush posted this particular thought, but I've heard the same basic idea too many times lately, both publicly and privately:
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If the [Ivory-bill] believers are wrong, the worst that will happen is that money, time, resources, energy, will have been directed toward preserving a certain wild area of the Southeast on a false premise -- and, uhhh, geee... that's a bad thing???
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In my opinion, yes, it is a "bad thing" to use a false premise to get what you want. In my view, this is not only a bad thing when other people do it; it's also a bad thing if we (birders and environmentalists) do it.

It appears that nonexistent Ivory-bills may have been used at least twice in the past for the purposes of preserving land.

1. From "The Grail Bird, page 21:
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...The one good thing to come from the [never-confirmed] sighting is that the possible presence of ivory-bills in the area helped spur the creation of the Big Thicket National Preserve. A bill passed by Congress in October 1974 set aside an 84,550 acre preserve--not bad for an extinct bird.
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2. It appears to have also worked in South Carolina in 1971.

In my opinion, "crying wolf", or "crying Ivory-bill" is a very poor long-term strategy. It evidently worked for the Big Thicket and South Carolina situations above, and it may be working again (temporarily) in Arkansas.

However, if definitive Ivory-bill proof doesn't emerge soon, I think an unpleasant backlash will follow. If this premise really is false, I'm afraid that future, legitimate conservation efforts may suffer.

To me, it seems sensible to wait for the definitive photographic proof. If it ever comes, I would then be in favor of launching into massive fundraising and Ivory-bill-specific habitat programs.

If you believe that an Ivory-bill is currently living in Arkansas, you also must believe that the Ivory-bill survived and successfully bred throughout the last six decades, and you also must believe that the Ivory-bill can live in what seems to be sub-optimal habitat. Does anyone really think that after 60+ years of its thriving despite our "neglect", we've finally glimpsed the Ivory-bill at the precise moment when it can no longer survive without our special help?