[Scpg] Ivory-billed Woodpecker Lecture, UCSB, Aug. 25, 8PM Santa Barbara

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

Ivory-billed Woodpecker Lecture, UCSB Santa Barbara CA, Aug. 25, 8PM

A featured part of the annual American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) meeting 
that will be held next week at UCSB is a lecture on the rediscovery of the 
Ivory-billed Woodpecker.  This lecture will be given by the first author of 
the Science paper that announced the rediscovery in April, Dr. John 
Fitzpatrick, Director of the Laboratory of Ornithology com:oCornell 
University, at 8pm on Thursday, Aug 25th.  Chancellor Yang and Dean 
Moskovits have provided resources that will make this lecture available to 
the general UCSB community and the public via a live video feed into Corwin 
Pavilion (as with other events that have filled Campbell Hall, which can 
accommodate only the 700 people registered for the AOU meeting and a small 
number of special guests).

Background
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, is a spectacular bird that is one of the 
largest woodpeckers in the world.  It has long been an icon of America's 
lost biodiversity, as it was assumed to have gone extinct in the 
1940s.  The announced rediscovery of this species last April was perhaps 
the biggest conservation story in decades and the AOU meeting at UCSB will 
be the first time that the rediscovery is presented at a scientific 
meeting.  The Thursday night talk will be geared to the general public and 
to professional ornithologists (more technical talks on the species will be 
presented in other sessions during the AOU meeting).  Besides discussing 
the rediscovery of this bird, Dr. Fitzpatrick will describe efforts to 
preserve it and its habitat, the magnificent bottomland forests that were 
once widespread across the Southeastern United States, as well as the 
effects these efforts may have on the American conservation movement.


Dr. Fitzpatrick's abstract
REDISCOVERY OF THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER AND ITS CONSERVATION IMPLICATIONS.
In February, 2004 a kayaker in eastern Arkansas spotted a bird he thought 
was an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. His hunch was confirmed two weeks later 
when two experts saw the bird at close range very near the original site. 
This began a concerted, clandestine effort by a large partnership of 
individuals and organizations, spanning the next 14 months, to obtain 
tangible evidence plus information about population size and distribution. 
A series of sightings in April 2004 culminated in an alert searcher 
capturing a brief but historic video, in which a bird we interpret as an 
Ivory-billed Woodpecker is flying away from the approaching canoe. 
Extensive acoustic inventories of the Big Woods region in 2004 and 2005 
also suggest that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers are present, but are 
extraordinarily quiet. I will review the evidence for persistence of 
Ivory-bills in North America beyond 1944, and will summarize the latest 
details on our ongoing project to study the newly discovered Arkansas 
bird(s). I will discuss the importance of this discovery for the American 
conservation psyche, emphasizing its crucial implications for bringing back 
the great forests of southeastern United States.

Please note: there will be two viewing locations for the 
presentation.  Individuals registered for the AOU conference will attend 
the lecture hall in Campbell Hall; individuals not registered for the 
meeting must attend the lecture in Corwin Pavilion because of limited space 
considerations in Campbell Hall. We will attempt to make provisions for 
transmitting questions to Dr. Fitzpatrick from Corwin.
     ~~      ~~      ~~      ~~
Directions and Parking
Use the right map at 
<http://www.aw.id.ucsb.edu/maps.html>http://www.aw.id.ucsb.edu/maps.<http://www.aw.id.ucsb.edu/maps.html>html 
to get to UCSB.  Using the left map Corwin Pavilion is at E or F 3 using 
the map coordinates.  You are advised to get to campus well before 8pm and 
be prepared to walk some distance from where you may park.  Your easiest 
parking is in Lots 6 (near Campus Point), 23 (near Isla Vista), or 
29.  Expect a 6-8 min walk from any of these parking lots.  Or you can try 
lot 3, lot 4, or lot 9.

Please use the self-pay parking machines AFTER 5:00 PM.  Note that parking 
permits are required at all times, seven days per week; you may get a 
parking citation if you do not have a proper permit or have not paid for 
parking. Be sure to use the self-pay stations after 5pm.  But note the 
number painted on your parking space before proceeding to the machine.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.permaculture-guilds.org/pipermail/southern-california-permaculture/attachments/20050821/dd1f08aa/attachment.html>