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Today I'm privileged to interview Dr. Michael K. Steinberg, professor at University of Alabama, and author of the wonderful 2008 volume "Stalking the Ghost Bird" (focused on the search for the IBWO in Louisiana) and get his responses to some Ivory-bill-related questions. Here we go:
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1) Please tell readers whatever you would like about your background, credentials, and interests as it pertains to the subject of Ivory-bills….
My credentials are that of an ivory-bill layman. I have had a lifelong interest in the species. I can’t even tell anyone exactly why other than the sheer magnetism of the bird and the mystery that surrounds it. I am a professor of geography who writes and teaches about conservation issues, including birds, but I’m not a classically trained ornithologist. My book came about because I lived in Louisiana for many years during and after earning my PhD at LSU (unrelated to the IBWP), so the search for the bird was front and center so to speak in terms of accessibility of habitat and personalities.
2) Your book, which for shorthand I’ll be calling “STGB,” came out in 2008. Has there been, or are you planning, a newer edition to cover some of the findings/claims of the last 17 years? (although, ultimately, the debate hasn’t changed all that much):
The book came out in paperback a couple of years ago and I did a very brief update then, but I have no plans to do a full scale rewrite. I feel like there are many books and resources out now, and many people who are much closer to the issue than me. I continue to follow the issue closely, but much of my research and writing are focused elsewhere.
3) When you wrote the volume you were pretty convinced of the species’ existence. Has your confidence changed at all (in either direction) in the ensuing years? And, assuming you’re still a ‘believer’ what is the strongest evidence or argument in your mind for the birds’ persistence?
My confidence has not changed. I know (as do you) too many highly qualified field scientists and birders who have seen the bird. I simply cannot believe that they were/are all wrong. Yes, there are similar species and people make mistakes, but I have no doubt the bird exists or existed until very recently. For example, Chuck Hunter from the USFW Service recently shared a story on social media about a friend and colleague who saw the bird from her car. The person had great credentials and had no reason to make anything up. Those are the types of reports that have convinced me the species still exists.
4) How much have you personally searched for IBWOs by yourself or with others? And if you had to pick a single area in Louisiana as the most promising locale to search for someone with limited time what might you advise?
When I lived in Baton Rouge I spent a lot of time in and around the Atchafalaya Basin. I thought, as I described in my book, that video evidence would surface from the Patterson area. The searchers saw the bird, so I feel like they were very very close. The birds may have left that area but I still believe that it could finally be “re-discovered” around that area. I have been told of another area in Louisiana that has provided some really great evidence much more recently, but I am not able to really share that area. I have not visited it either, so I am less familiar with it. Also, the area searched by Geoff Hill in the Florida Panhandle provided good evidence. It seems like that area should be revisited.
5) Your volume is full of wonderful stories of so many characters and claimants in recent Louisiana IBWO history, two of which I'll specifically ask about: Are Jay Boe and Scott Ramsey [these were 2 individuals with especially interesting claims] still around and have you stayed in touch with them?
More generally, have you remained in touch with other locals included in STGB and gleaned anything new and/or significant from anyone since the book came out?
[…your discussion of and interaction with Fielding Lewis, before his passing, is quite fascinating as well, for any readers who may wish to read more about the whole Lewis story]
I really have only stayed in touch with Tommy Michot. So many people have retired or passed away sadly that the list of people who were my contacts has grown much smaller. Also, as you know, the emotions and intensity of the birding world are very strong. Some people simply wanted to move on after the book came out.
6) One notable person missing from your volume is Michael Collins, who has several IBWO sightings (and related publications) from the Pearl River WMA region. Were Mike’s claims not yet hitting the Web at the time you were researching the book, or is there any other reason he is not included? And have you conversed with him in years since STGB came out?
I regret not including his research. But, it seemed that at the time he had his own publishing and research agenda and I didn’t feel like I could tell part of his story without stealing some of his thunder. There were also so many stories and so many big personalities that I had to limit what I included at some point. But yes, I should have reached out more.
7) More recently, as you likely know, Matt Courtman has been very focused on certain areas of the Tensas WMA, where he claims several sightings over the last few years. Have you had an opportunity to speak with him?
I have not spoken with him. I know his work and have found it and his research very interesting, but I am pretty much on the sideline of the search so I have not kept up personally with many folks currently involved in searches. Tensas is certainly an interesting location given the obvious importance to the IBWO in the early 20th century. If I still lived in Louisiana I think I would be much more involved to this day, but my career has taken me since then to Maine, Hawaii, and now Birmingham AL. There doesn’t seem to be much interest or recent sighting in AL, so I have become sort of disconnected from Louisiana.
8) The Louisiana Ornithological Society is a long-time excellent birding group comprised of many expert field birders, but as far as I can tell they have long been verrry negative and scoffing toward any notion of IBWOs extant in Louisiana. Am just curious if in the course of your research you had occasion to speak on the subject with any of their leading members and if so, how that went, or if your book brought any response from them?
This group is one reason I have moved on so to speak. I knew many of the personalities, but their criticism of the ivory-bill search and searchers became too intense for me. I believe what I believe based on what I have seen and read. I don’t mind disagreement, but life is too short for vitriolic rhetoric. If someone believes they saw the bird and have some knowledge of the issue, I don’t (and never have) understood the personal attacks.
[...Even understanding the historical importance, it's always seemed a tad funny to me that the Society has long used the Ivory-bill proudly as its group emblem, yet seems to intensely oppose any notion that the species could persist in Louisiana.]
9) Lastly, many naysayers have this mistaken notion that somehow IBWO-like habitat has been searched exhaustively or is frequented by humans regularly — this isn’t even true of much of the remote and inhospitable public acreage available, but it’s especially not true of other large plots of land that are owned privately (one of the reasons often given for Fielding Lewis’s anonymity over decades is that he didn’t want to expose his own buddies’ parcels that might harbor IBWOs to any public disclosure).
You regularly mention the sort of anti-Government, anti-regulation mindset that often prevails. Conservationists have actually had quite a few successes dealing with private landowners when endangered species are involved (the Red-cockaded Woodpecker being one common example), but how hopeful are you that IF a creature as charismatic and sought-after as IBWOs are ever confirmed on private land in La., an amicable/workable forward-looking plan could even be put in place?
I agree, so much is out there still to be studied. And as I said in my book (I think) there is more habitat today than in the past 100 years). I am actually more optimistic today than in the past (although current changes within the US FW Service and Department of the Interior may change my optimism). As you mention there are some notable successes, and I do think the fear of “feds” taking land over was and is an old timey perception held by fewer people today than in the past. But, the rural South is also very slow to change so I’m sure some people still hold those views. I actually think when a clear video etc. surfaces, it will likely be on federal or state lands or at least land adjoining state and federal lands so the management may not be as cumbersome as I wrote about. Also, the growing interest in birds and birding I think has probably calmed the waters a bit in terms of this issue.
THANKS! for taking part here Dr. Steinberg and much success in your future studies and endeavors... Meanwhile, if you haven't already read it, get a copy of "Stalking the Ghost Bird" and give it a whirl; it's an interesting look at a single state and a fascinating cast of characters.
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