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“The ivorybill was an extravagant creature, by all accounts, a vision in ebony and white... We cut its habitat right out from under it, and we continue to cut it. We’ve sent out countless messages with our saws and our columns of smoke. Leave or die out. Find somewhere else to live. This land is our land, now. And it just doesn’t listen to us; it goes on, somewhere, I have to believe it; not dead, but missing in action; alive, definitely, desperately, joyously, alive. No one can tell me I’m wrong, and, it seems, no one can tell me I’m right. There are those of us who cannot let it go.” -- Julie Zickefoose, 1999
"I was in a magical place. Deep and magical, with trees that were very old. I had just set my paddle down, thinking how lucky I was to be in such a place, and that's when the bird flew in. It gave me a long straight view as it flew toward me." -- Gene Sparling describing his encounter with an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Cache River NWR
"Since the first sighting of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, this has consumed us. We have dedicated our time and our dreams to protecting and conserving this area. These woods are my church." -- John Fitzpatrick Director, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
"I was, frankly, shocked by the force of my reaction to this bird... To be shaking, on the verge of tears -- this startled me. After all, I'm a scientist.... In some way, the lives of those of us who have been touched briefly by the Ivory-billed Woodpecker will never be the same again." -- Melanie Driscoll (one of Cornell's original 7 sighters of the IBWO)
"The odds against your stumbling upon the last Ivory-billed Woodpecker are astronomical. It's much more likely that this bird is part of a population, however small. This bird had parents. Where are they? Where did they come from?" -- John Fitzpatrick
"... if you make the sighting known, you doom the bird. So far we've shown as a species that we're incapable of doing the right thing." -- Mary Scott (IBWO searcher and internet site developer)
...and finally,
“...for now, we can savor the satisfaction of this joyous discovery, a validation of two undeniable truths. The first, of course, is that where there is life, there's hope. The second, no less profound, is that we have no earthly idea what goes on in the backwoods of Arkansas.” -- Mike, an internet blogger, 4/28/05
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