The Decline of Bottomland Hardwood Forests of the Lower Mississippi River
The Loss of the Ivory-Bill's Natural Habitat in the Big Woods of Arkansas
The decline of the ivory-billed woodpecker is a story of habitat loss.
The ivory-billed woodpecker once ranged from Texas to North Carolina, from southern Illinois through Florida and south to Cuba. It dwelled primarily among swampy bottomland hardwood forests, preferring wilderness and the deep cover of old-growth woods. These forests provided the bird with an endless supply of dead and dying trees, where the ivory-bill found its primary food source of beetle larvae living under the bark.
Source: The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, by James T. Tanner, published in 1942 by the National Audubon Society
Before European settlement, some 52 million acres of the Southeast were a wilderness of bottomland hardwood forests — forests that develop in the floodplains of slow-moving rivers and streams. These forested wetlands have their tree roots in wet soil and their trunks often in standing water.
Nearly half of the Southeast’s bottomland hardwood forests were found in the Mississippi River Delta spanning seven states. Today these Delta forests have shrunk to less than one-fifth of their original 24 million-acre extent.
It is in these vastly diminished forests of the Delta that the ivory-billed woodpecker was rediscovered in Arkansas in 2004.
Map: Original range of the ivory-billed woodpecker.
© The Nature Conservancy |
Map: Range of the ivory-billed woodpecker in 1885.
© The Nature Conservancy |
Map: Shrinking U.S. range of the ivory-billed woodpecker by 1930.
© The Nature Conservancy |
For More Information About the Ivory-billed Woodpecker:
- Decline of the Bottomland Hardwood Forests: An Imperiled National Treasure
Learn more about the reduction in area of the Mississippi River Delta and the Big Woods of Arkansas.
- Threats to the Big Woods of Arkansas
The ecological costs have been high for the Big Woods, a working forest and river system with tremendous ecological, economic and cultural value.
- Restoring the Big Woods of Arkansas
Since 1982, the Conservancy and its partners have safeguarded more than 120,000 acres in the Big Woods of Arkansas, including the location where the ivory-billed woodpecker was rediscovered in 2004.
- Saving the Big Woods of Arkansas
Together with private landowners and conservation partners, The Nature Conservancy is taking action at local sites to restore the lands, waters, plants and animals of the Big Woods of Arkansas.
- Driving Directions to the Big Woods of Arkansas
You can visit special interpretive areas at both the Cache River and White River National Wildlife Refuges where the ivory-billed woodpecker has been rediscovered in a safe, sustainable manner that minimizes the impact to the ivory-bill and its habitat.
- Audio Chat: Phillip Hoose Speaks About the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Listen to Phillip Hoose, author of The Race to Save the Lord God Bird speak about the recent rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in a live online audio chat.
- How You Can Help: Donate online
Support our efforts to conserve this critical habitat for the ivory-bill and other species.
- Ivory-billed Woodpecker News
See ivory-billed woodpecker photos, maps of the ivory-bill's habitat, and other news and information about the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker.
