Have you seen this bird? Mission Ivory offering $12,000 reward

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to declare the Ivory-billed Woodpecker extinct and have it delisted from the endangered species list on September 30 of 2021.

Mission Ivorybill, started and headed by Matt Courtman, is a function of The Louisiana Wilds. Mission Ivorybill has been challenging the USFWS on the existence of the bird. If the woodpecker is removed from the endangered species list, the USFWS will then be legally free to “fragment the woods.”

Courtman was eager to express that, “this really is a home grown thing. People need to know how much of a local story this is. Landowners are worried that things will go badly if it (the Ivory-bill) is removed from the endangered species list.”

In the 1880’s, sightings of the bird plummeted. By 1924, the bird was considered extinct by science. In 1932, Mason Spencer of Tallulah, head of the Dynamite Squad, overheard biologists say that the Ivorybills were extinct. He responded by asking if they were talking about “Kent.”

Kent was a nickname given to the bird for the sound it makes. The biologists agreed and Spencer argued that the birds still existed in his hunting grounds. He was then given permission to kill one Ivorybill by the Department of Conservation. The Conservation was the prelude to the USWFS. The bird was then rediscovered in North East Louisiana, and later the information was shared with the rest of the world in 1934.

In 1986 at the Woodpecker Summit in Baton Rouge, Jerome Jackson claimed that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker could not be declared extinct. He stated that the bird could be heard on the Yazoo, and that was enough information to continue the efforts to keep the bird from the extinction list. Furthermore, the bird can not be declared extinct without a proper court hearing.

“I don’t think the USFWS will declare the bird extinct, but if they do, we have enough ground to stand on to prevent it,” Courtman said. In 2010, the USFWS headed a recovery plan of over 1200 species on the endangered list. In the first year, they spent less to find the Ivorybill than Mission Ivory spent in the first month of searching.

Mission Ivory is hard at work to prove the bird’s existence. They are currently offering a $12,000 reward to anyone who can give information on the existence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The Woodpecker is partial to swamps and heavily wooded areas in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. If you have any information regarding this bird, please contact info@thelouisianawilds.org or call 318-243-9245.