1. From a Cornell article in December 2005:
BRINKLEY, Ark. -- As Cornell's Lab of Ornithology staffers and volunteers gear up for a six-month search for the ivory-billed woodpecker, residents of Brinkley might be wondering why this bird is so hard to find.2. From an October 2005 Syracuse.com article (previously mentioned on this blog):
"Everybody I know in Brinkley has said they've seen the bird," said Butch Turner, manager of the Mallard Pointe Lodge and Reserve, a hunting lodge just outside of town. "Two of our guys [lodge employees] say they've seen the bird, and these are guys who have lived all their lives around the Big Woods."
Still, nobody seems able to point a camera and get a clear image of the elusive woodpecker.
It doesn't take a lot of high-powered economic analysis to see why Mallard Pointe Lodge in Brinkley, Ark., doesn't cater to duck hunters the way it used to.
The ivory-billed woodpecker was spotted just a quarter-mile away from the 3,000-acre spread where Mallard Pointe, originally a duck hunting club, provided guides, dogs and open bars for hunters.
"We've set most of that aside and we have gone full force into bird watching," said manager Butch Turner.
The lodge finished a 10,000-square-foot addition last month that more than doubled its capacity. It signed up the biggest name in birding these days - Gene Sparling, the naturalist who first saw the ivory-bill in February 2004 - to lead some of its tours. Bird-watching packages for a seven-night stay cost $2,295 per person.
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4 comments:
What one would find interesting is Mallard Pointe, the hub for bird watchers seeking the elusive Ivorybill, has been issued a drilling permit for Natural Gas in the very area in which the elusive bird was said to be! Now that seems to against the grain on the course of action taken to protect the area. We now have Gas exploration taking place in the very area where the Ivorybill was seen & right beside the Managed Area which has been closed to protect the suppose sighting. It seem strange that a drilling permit would even had been sought by Mallard Pointe! It also seem strange that a permit would have been allowed in an area of such vidal importance to a renewed extinct bird! Something does not add up here! Endagered, persumed extinct species & Natural Gas exploration and drilling rigs does not seem to go hand in hand in the same areas?
I guess one could persume this elusive, very wary bird might just welcome this new enterprise.
Who knows, It might just be the thing it needs? Maybe the Ivorybill, if there, might just use the Drilling rig as a perch & maybe he will finally be seen in this protected area of such importance!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have go to be joking? They are going to permit drilling in the same area that the bird was reported to live in! I think this needs to be followed up on. This does not add up. If a permit was issued & drilling is going to be allowed to happen, it clearly shows that the validity of the reported sighting must not be carrying much weight anymore!
I don't know exactly what this means, but when I Googled for "mallard pointe drilling", I found a March 26, 2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article at this
link (subscription may be required).
Under "Oil and Gas Report", it says:
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The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission last week issued 35 drilling permits, no well completions and no well recompletions. By county, they were:
...
MONROE
— Hallwood Petroleum of Dallas for Mallard Pointe 1-19 to 8,250 ft. in Fayetteville Shale Form. of Wildcat Fld. Loc. 560 FNL & 560 FEL of Sec. 19-3 N-32 W. Contractor: Eagle Drilling; work began March 15.
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TNC drilled under Atwatter's Prarie Chicken, Audubon drills on Rainey under ducks, coots, and wading birds.
Why is it when a private eco tourism concern does responsible drilling under habitat occupied by the IBWO do people raise an eye?
Just because Mallard Pointe is leading briding tours to see IBWO AND drilling for O&G - do people get concerned?
IBWO habitat can be cut to the root, the birds are surviors. They can persit - the science has shown this definitively.
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