[mou] How the Ivory-billed dodged the bullet

[John Schladweiler]

The following is some information that shows just how close the
Ivory-billed WP came to losing the habitat that ultimately has been
shown to be crucial to the Lord God bird.  With this history in mind,
that nickname takes on a whole other meaning.

In the early 1970s, one of Arkansas' foremost environmental crusades
began, the fight to save 232 miles of the Cache River and its tributary,
Bayou DeView, from being channelized. The Cache meanders through
northeast Arkansas from the Missouri boot heel to the White River at
Clarendon. Bayou de View parallels the Cache about eight miles to the
east for much of its length. Together they are the winter resting place
for an estimated 800,000 migrating ducks.  

A plan to straighten and deepen the streams to improve the drainage of
surrounding lands was proposed as early as the 1920s. After soybean
prices soared in the 1960s, U.S. representative Bill Alexander (Democrat
of Arkansas) got Congress to allocate $60 million for the work.

As attorney for a group of environmentalists, Richard S. Arnold filed
suit in
federal court, challenging the adequacy of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers' twelve page Environmental Impact Statement on the project. 
After District Judge J. Smith Henley ruled for the Corps, it began
dredging the Cache near Clarendon even though the case had been appealed
to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and Governor Dale Bumpers
had asked for a delay.

"I couldn't stand by and watch a bureaucratic federal agency thumb its
nose at
Arkansas," Hancock said, explaining why he single-handedly organized the
Citizens
Committee to Save the Cache River Basin in October 1972. The committee
eventually
included thirty-five national organizations and eight states (including
MN) in the Mississippi Flyway.

The battle raged until Congress cut off funds in 1978 after a U.S. Fish
and
Wildlife Service (USF&WS) study called the plan "the single most
damaging project to
waterfowl in the nation," and the Environmental Protection Agency
refused to grant a
necessary permit to the Corps in 1979. In 1980 the USF&WS announced
plans for a
thirty-five-thousand-acre Cache River Wildlife Refuge, which has since
been established. Only seven-plus miles of the Cache River near
Clarendon ever were "ditched."

Moral of the story: Taking a stand for the environment does pay off.

John Schladweiler
New Ulm

John Schladweiler
MN Dept. of Natural Resources
Asst. Regional Wildlife Manager
261 Hwy 15 S
New Ulm, MN 56073
john.schladweiler@dnr.state.mn.us
507-359-6031