The following is some information that shows just how close the Ivory-billed WP came to losing the habitat that ultimately has been shown to be crucial to the Lord God bird. With this history in mind, that nickname takes on a whole other meaning.
In the early 1970s, one of Arkansas' foremost environmental crusades began, the fight to save 232 miles of the Cache River and its tributary, Bayou DeView, from being channelized. The Cache meanders through northeast Arkansas from the Missouri boot heel to the White River at Clarendon. Bayou de View parallels the Cache about eight miles to the east for much of its length. Together they are the winter resting place for an estimated 800,000 migrating ducks. A plan to straighten and deepen the streams to improve the drainage of surrounding lands was proposed as early as the 1920s. After soybean prices soared in the 1960s, U.S. representative Bill Alexander (Democrat of Arkansas) got Congress to allocate $60 million for the work. As attorney for a group of environmentalists, Richard S. Arnold filed suit in federal court, challenging the adequacy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' twelve page Environmental Impact Statement on the project. After District Judge J. Smith Henley ruled for the Corps, it began dredging the Cache near Clarendon even though the case had been appealed to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and Governor Dale Bumpers had asked for a delay. "I couldn't stand by and watch a bureaucratic federal agency thumb its nose at Arkansas," Hancock said, explaining why he single-handedly organized the Citizens Committee to Save the Cache River Basin in October 1972. The committee eventually included thirty-five national organizations and eight states (including MN) in the Mississippi Flyway. The battle raged until Congress cut off funds in 1978 after a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS) study called the plan "the single most damaging project to waterfowl in the nation," and the Environmental Protection Agency refused to grant a necessary permit to the Corps in 1979. In 1980 the USF&WS announced plans for a thirty-five-thousand-acre Cache River Wildlife Refuge, which has since been established. Only seven-plus miles of the Cache River near Clarendon ever were "ditched." Moral of the story: Taking a stand for the environment does pay off. John Schladweiler New Ulm John Schladweiler MN Dept. of Natural Resources Asst. Regional Wildlife Manager 261 Hwy 15 S New Ulm, MN 56073 [email protected] 507-359-6031
