I was reading the March 2007 Edition of Canoe & Kayak magazine, in particular article about people coming to find the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, a once thought extinct species that had been found among the wetland forests of Arkansas a few years back. The article was about some canoers who decided to take a huge hiking trip to site the bird themselves. The state of Arkansas was offering a $10,000 reward for finding a nesting site, feeding ground, or roast cavity and leads an Arkansas wildlife official to the site. The author of the article happened to be one of the canoers.
While he was writing the article he found it important to emphasize the spirit of the town in relation to the Ivory-Bill. One of the things he noted was the menus of the neighboring restaurants, how they were selling ivory-billed burgers and ivory-billed brownies. He also mentioned the Ivory-Billed Inn, the Ivory-Bill Nest gift shop, and Woodpecker Haircut Special (my favorite).
So what do I find that needs to be said about all of this??? Well, there is a LOT that needs to be said.
First of all, I know that the siting of a once thought to be endangered species is a grand thing and the wilderness department probably serves to gain much funding for locating more evidence of the whereabouts of this bird but to advertise a $10,000 reward, that could create such a large attraction of tourists that the bird gets frightened and flies away. If that happens, where will it go? How will we find it again? How will we be able to monitor its current existence?
For two, what kind of culture are you creating calling your food ivory-billed burgers and ivory-billed brownies? I mean, I can see the enthusiasm, but it anyone can even fathom eating food with that name on it then they are psychologically closer and closer to accepting the idea of killing an eating the poor endangered species back into extinction. Now what good will THAT do?
However, the Ivory-Billed in and the Ivory-Billed Nest both have good rings to the names. It kind of brings the connotation that your in the habitat of the bird, as long as you don't think so loosely that you somehow believe it would be OK to come near the nest of a female Ivory-Bill. If you do, she may never return and the offspring may not be able to survive outside of captivity. Animals in captivity can never be wild by nature again, at least not wild in the sense of survival on their own in the wild except by using wildlife rescue standards.
As far as the haircut is concerned, I think that's an EXCELLENT idea! It actually gives the psychology of a pure appreciation for the little fellow. He/She is quite stylish and we even wanna get our hairs cut in a way to emphasize the superiority of this species. That's totally awesome :)
If you want to look up back orders of the magazine, the article starts on page 38.
