Nature Conservancy Plans Tree-Girdling To Boost Ivory-Billed Numbers

[hatrack]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — In a sort of ecological trade-off, conservationists headed into the Arkansas woods Thursday to kill dozens of trees in hopes of helping the ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird that up until recently was feared extinct. The woodpecker feasts on beetle larvae beneath the bark of dead trees. Killing trees by damaging the bark or administering herbicide could create more food for them and help the species recover.

"The goal really is to see if we can induce some kind of decrepitness in these trees, attract the insects and ultimately see if the woodpecker would use the trees," said Douglas Zollner, who works with The Nature Conservancy and is one of the project directors.

Zollner said the idea came even before scientists revealed in April that the woodpecker had been found living in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Arkansas. For more than half a century, the bird was thought to have been driven to extinction.

The plan calls for killing trees on four, four-acre plots where the woodpecker was sighted. On Thursday, Mike Melnechuk with The Nature Conservancy traveled to the four plots of swampy forestland owned by the conservation group and the state to slowly kill some of the trees with herbicide. Melnechuk also planned to use a method called girdling, in which chain saws and axes are used cut the bark and cause the tree to die.

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=8438

[CottonBear]

1. Actually the girdling cuts the cambium layer under the tree's bark.

The cambium layer contains the xylema and phloem tissues which carry water and nutrients up and down the trunk from roots to leaves.

[roguevalley]

2. what a trade off. Dead trees for woodpeckers. SIGH! Too bad. But

I love woodpeckers too. I hope if they do it that it works.

[CottonBear]

3. It's OK. Dead trees and snags provide valuable wildlife habitat and food

for birds, reptiles, insects and mammals! It is good to have dead and dying trees on the land. It's part of the ecosystem. Downed trees are a source of life too! The fungi invade along with animals and plants! It's the circle of life.

BTW, I love your doggie pics! I know one of them has passed on. They are so sweet. You must love them so much! :hug: