None The Nature Conservancy in Illinois Press Releases Search All Press Releases Chris Anderson Email: canderson@tnc.org Phone:(312) 759-8017 ext. 30 Cell: (312) 218-0186

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Search Team Leaders Coming to Chicago

New Effort to Evaluate the Bird’s Numbers and Habitat is Underay

Chicago—The Nature Conservancy in Illinois and the Field Museum of Natural History are hosting a public event on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at the Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, to discuss the re-discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker.  Featured speakers for the 6 p.m. reception and 7 p.m. lecture will be Scott Simon, director of The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, and John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Simon, a native of Highland Park, Ill., and Fitzpatrick, formerly the curator of birds at the Field Museum, are co-leaders of an extensive search that last year confirmed the ivory-billed woodpecker’s existence six decades after it was thought to be extinct. Gene Sparling, a naturalist whose first sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker while kayaking the Cache River in Arkansas triggered the original search, will also be on hand during the event to provide details of his encounter.

A new search started recently in the Big Woods of Arkansas. The purpose is to determine how many ivory-billed woodpeckers exist and the extent and condition of their habitat. This information is expected to guide The Nature Conservancy and its partners in efforts to ensure the bird’s survival.

“We’re thrilled we’re able to bring this event to Chicago,” said Michael Reuter, chief conservation officer for The Nature Conservancy in Illinois. “The re-discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker is not just great news. It’s one of the most inspiring conservation stories of our generation. The re-discovery confirms the critical ecological and economic importance of preserving lands and waters on a large scale.”

The ivory-billed woodpecker is alive in Arkansas as the result of efforts by The Nature Conservancy, other nonprofit groups, government agencies and private land owners to secure roughly 550,000 acres of bottomland hardwood habitat. An additional 200,000 acres are needed to reconnect fragmented forests in Arkansas and to link the ivory-billed’s historic habitat to the Mississippi River, one of the world’s most important bird flyways.

The ivory-billed’s original range likely included southern Illinois, but was last seen in the region more than a century ago. The Nature Conservancy in Illinois is working to prevent the red-headed woodpecker from suffering a similar fate. The red-headed woodpecker is in decline in Illinois and throughout its range in the United States due to loss of habitat. Scientists believe if this rate of decline continues the red-headed woodpecker could face widespread local extinction within 50 years. The Nature Conservancy is working to preserve land in the ecologically significant Kankakee Sands area about 70 miles south of Chicago to sustain approximately 500 breeding pairs of red-headed woodpeckers.

To order tickets for the ivory-billed woodpecker event, call (312) 665-7500. Reservations are accepted with credit card.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.