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.
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Directions and Parking
Use the right map at http://www.aw.id.ucsb.edu/maps.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.