But because much of the old-growth in the Big Woods was heavily cut over, what’s growing now is relatively young with very few trees in decline. There were six to eight dying trees per acre in the Louisiana forests when Tanner studied the ivory-bill; today our study are in the Big Woods contains only two to three such trees per acre.According to this link, glyphosate is the primary ingredient in Monsanto's popular herbicide Roundup.
Of the 2,600 to 2,800 trees in each plot, 35 to 50 are being treated either by girdling (using a chain saw or ax to cut a ring into the bark) or by injection with a low dose of the chemical glyphosate, a naturally occurring hormone in plants.
In North American Birds (Dec '04-Feb '05 issue, page 218) the Ivory-bill's habitat requirements do seem a poor match for the Big Woods description above:
The Ivory-billed was thus a unique indicator species, occupying a niche position in the process of forest decline, a species whose abundance was more dependent on rates of tree death than on accumulating stocks of standing dead wood.If you believe the Ivory-bill survived through 2004, you must believe that it did so without us killing any trees on its behalf. I'm not quite sure why theoretical Ivory-bills suddenly need our help now...
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