woody wood pecker.

What i found most striking was how it came to extinction, like other large american birds, it was not necessarily the hunting of it, but the destruction of vasts habitats. its strange to think of the south east as "forested" but to a great extent it was i guess, and its sad that at the time the use (misuse) of the land was seen as more important than the existence of such an iconic bird. it reminds me of the whooping crane, if anyones ever read even cowgirls get the blues by Tom Robbins, in its Majesty and nostalgic call to the pre colonial american wildlife, and to the call to action that it can make with its absence. in practical terms the ivory billed wood pecker died long ago, stripped of its large nesting areas and genetic diversity, the few specimens that might live in Arkansas are ghosts flying through the forest, reduced to an oddity, and appendage of the countries natural history and past, they can perhaps manifest the longing for what we now know we have lost and traded, but that they could survive into posterity as more than a cartoon, a warning, a taxidermist's coveted whim, i doubt. the future of dying species rests in their preservation (where the genetic pool allows) through the restoration of favorable habitats (balanced natural order of ecosystems where they were meant to be) or through a much scarier line of thought, a compromise perhaps with science, as it is being done in some places, the collection of genetic information of extint or dying species, as is being done successfully with plants, for their eventual relocation and/or recreation... but science does not yet have all those answers, and so people still cringe at the thought of geoengineering and cloning, when in fact i fear that in some cases thats the only door we are leaving open, be it for the wild flowers of the Dakotas or Largest of the woodpeckers