JK: Ruth de Calvo writes about the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, her work with Senator Yarborough on pathbreaking civil-rights and endangered species legislation, and the bird's recent happy rediscovery. Ruth is a regular member of the peanut gallery here at Winds, and those of us who hang out there know her well. This is her first Guest Blog.
Big Bird Stories
by Ruth de Calvo
Part of belonging to a big, bountiful, tarnished but untarnished, ornery and admirable Texas is realizing that a lot gets lost in the process of civilization. There was a legendary bird called Ivory Bill [JK: the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker] that gave a raucous screech and was part of the loblolly pine woods that fell to make the houses of east Texas. Back away from the growth and industries, there was enough room left for big tracts of the untarnished parts, and a large area was named in usual de-romanticised fashion The Big Thicket.
Not so far back in time, we became aware of a loss we were experiencing in our updated and modernized landscape even here in the rural areas. A lot of land was put aside, wild areas were preserved, the Big Thicket National Preserve became part of a pastiche of beauty that this country set aside as areas for general recreation, and public conservation. In the deep interior, there was an Indian reservation, too, where the Alabama Coushatta Indian village was at home forever.
One of the instrumental members of the congressional delegation was a Texas size set of contradictions, Senator Ralph Webster Yarborough. I went to work for him in 1966, a few years after he had been a last holdout in the long travail of the Civil Rights legislation an outstanding group of statesmen passed to redeem a long tradition of wrongs.
Reading the obituaries for Rep. Jake Pickle last week, I noticed again that his political death was also attributed to his vote in favor of Civil Rights as a representative from an area where that was not the popular will. Every one of those early liberals knew they were risking their careers when they made the vote, and the cost is being felt to this day.
In Senator Yarborough's office, there was a feeling of elation because of the pride in being part of the enlightened side. And there was the knowledge that there was a great deal of hate mail, hate phone calls, rumors of dirty doings (one we heard was that the Senator's office was all black people - we had a group photo made and distributed it to the Texas press), and the beginnings of deriding anyone with social conscience as being a 'bleeding heart liberal'.
In the junior senator's office there was a spirit of innovation, some proud achievements were the Cold War GI Bill of Rights, that gave educational benefits to veterans of undeclared war. That by the way, by that time was Vietnam, now President Johnson's war. Surprised? Yes, we were from the liberal wing of the Texas Democratic party, but we were not the militarist crowd. Senator made derisive remarks on the floor of the Senate about the administration's coopting funds that were appropriated for education, for conservation, for the purchase of lands to become the Padre Mountains National Park - and using them to bomb Vietnam. (He prounounced that 'bum Veetnam'.)
The legislative office was a sweet place, run by el Senador's son, Richard Yarborough. Like his father, Dick was brilliant and long enough part of the power groups of Washington to know how to accomplish things, and to know when nothing could be accomplished. He was also one of the targets of columnist Drew Pearson, and his ca. $30,000 annual salary constantly under attack as nepotism of the most sordid sort.
Like his father whose testimony about the number of shots actually fired into the presidential motorcade which he gave to the investigative committee had been totally ignored - and which is one of the building blocks in any number of conspiracy theories about the actual assassins of President John F. Kennedy - Dick could turn his back on criticism and go on about the business of legislation.
When the Fish and Wildlife Service sent us the notice of a reputed sighting of the threatened species known as the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in a remote area of the Big Thicket, it came to me, as I had the oversight of conservation issues. Probably the reason for that was that is was an undistinguished area, and I was bright, a writer of magazine articles and speechwriter, but with no legal training at the time.
I brought it to Dick's attention that there had been reported a sighting of the bird, and that it had been listed as possibly extinct for some time as there were no confirmed sightings over a period of almost ten years. He referred me to the stories of a backwoods character in the Thicket, who had been asked if he could find the rare bird, replied yes but was generally shunted aside. A short time afterwards, the man had plopped a dead Ivory Bill onto the Wildlife officer's desk saying "Here you are," then strutted back into the piney woods, vindicated in his own mind.
We talked about the fact that the few wildlife service officers actually out there in the field were going to be part of the community, and not so much concerned for a few violations of their rules as with keeping peace and order around them. We came to a conclusion that we took to the Senator, and he concurred. We were going to introduce a bill to give federal protection to the possibly extinct bird, ol' Ivory Bill.
Now over the years I've heard other stories about the ivory-billed woodpecker having been sighted here and there, from Virginia to Costa Rica, and many stories about the 'Lord God' bird that occasionally had nested near one or another story teller. We were willing to be realistic and accept the possibility that none would ever be seen again. It became a joke we used in attracting cosponsors for the bill. It was surely a good thing to give federal protection to an endangered species. Besides, as it was probably extinct, the law would most likely never have to be invoked. In legislative matters, that is something votes can be traded on.
It took some talking, and it took some vote trading, but the bill came through, and in later years Senator told me he had a few things he was really proud of, one of them the first legislation giving federal protection to an endangered species.
Ivory Bill came back. We have now, in 2005, a confirmed and photographed sighting of that big black and white striped, red headed, large and legendary figure. He's been looked for a long time, and eluded so many hopeful birders. Now he's reappeared like the raptors in Jurassic Park, not a far cry from the wildernesses of those piney woods.
Gives you hope that some other of the noble days, the higher things, will come back as well. He's likely got a hidden nest back there still in the Big Thicket, laughing for all he's worth. And a few Alabama Coushattas who aren't telling.