GONE, FOREVER
THE RACE TO SAVE THE LORD GOD BIRD
By Phillip Hoose
208 pp.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $20.
Reviewed by Noreen O’Brien
Catching a flash of red as I passed a window, I paused to peer out. Mouth
agape—I can’t seem to feel anything but awe each time I see this species—I
discovered a male pileated woodpecker hitching his way up a tree trunk where
he paused periodically to whack out chunks of bark in search of food. I
could see the bird’s long tongue retracting after probing deep into freshly
chiseled holes. Mesmerized, I began to wonder what it might be like to see
the ivory-billed woodpecker.
The similar, though larger and, apparently, more splendid bird than the
pileated, the ivory-billed is now believed to be extinct, and it is the
subject of a book by Phillip Hoose, The Race to Save the Lord God Bird.
The title of Hoose’s book comes from one of the common phrases once
expressed by individuals upon seeing this bird for the first time, “Lord
God!”
The ivory-billed once graced forests throughout much of the southeastern
United States and the island of Cuba. In only one hundred years, this
species was lost to extinction due to loss of habitat—and hunting by
collectors. The last time an ivory-billed was seen in the United States was
1943; the last sighting in Cuba was 1987. Reports of sightings in both these
locations after these dates are unconfirmed.
Meticulously researched, Hoose offers a biography spanning 200 hundred years
of a now legendary bird. In reading the ivory-billed’s story, we learn about
the collectors who shot and killed all birds, and particularly this bird,
for a variety of reasons, including for painting by the “father of
ornithology,” Alexander Wilson, as well as John James Audubon. Wealthy
enthusiasts like William Brewster collected as many as they could of each
species, paying men to hunt and shoot the birds for private collections.
Skins were made of hunted birds for filing away in natural history museum
drawers, too.
In the early 1900s, birds were killed by the thousands, some hunted almost
to extinction, for the widespread use of feathers, and even actual birds’
heads and bodies, on ladies’ plumed hats. In fact, the nation’s first
Audubon society was founded in 1896 by several women who were outraged at
the mass destruction of birds simply for fashion’s sake. They organized
themselves, founded Massachusetts Audubon Society and the rest of the nation
followed with their own Audubon societies. While Massachusetts Audubon
remains independent of National Audubon, Maine branches fall under the
umbrella of National Audubon Society.
Hoose shows us in vivid language the story of the ivory-billed’s swampy
woodland habitat of virgin forest consisting of mammoth oaks and sweet gums,
much of it owned by Singer Manufacturing Company, kept intact for many years
not for the birds’ sake, rather to make sewing machine cabinets. Singer sold
the property, some 73,000 acres, to Chicago Mill and Lumber Company, one of
the first companies to “snap up the cheap labor” of German Prisoners of War
(POW), sending the POWs out to clear the Singer Tract, home of the
ivory-billed. “The hoots of Barred Owls, the electric chatter of tree frogs,
the hair-raising cries of wolves, and the tooting calls of Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers were soon drowned out by the grinding, growling machines,” Hoose
wrote.
Cornell University’s ornithology professor, Arthur A. Allen, became
interested in the ivory-billed and passed the baton along to his student,
James Tanner. According to Hoose, Tanner cut the pattern of the early
conservation movement in America and what was then a revolutionary way to
study birds: shooting with a lens and binoculars rather than a gun and
recording their sounds with audio equipment. Cornell University still leads
the world in this arena. Cornell, through Tanner, managed to collect the
only moving images and sounds ever made of the ivory-billed woodpecker.
Hoose, who lives in Portland, Maine, and works for the Nature Conservancy,
not only offers a map to the extinction of a species, he also outlines a
history of our nation. Written for young readers to adult, Hoose is never
condescending—his is creative nonfiction in its best form. In addition, the
beautifully bound educational book, sprinkled throughout with grand black
and white photographs of the bird, the forest, and the people involved
during those early days, is only $20. I can’t think of a better value for
the money.
I leave you with the opening words to The Race to Save the Lord God Bird:
“To become extinct is the greatest tragedy in nature. Extinction means that
all the members of an entire species are dead; that an entire genetic family
is gone, forever. Or, as ornithologist William Beebe put it, ‘When the last
individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and
another earth must pass before such a one can be again.’”
Editor's note: After
this book review was written, there were verified sound recordings of the
ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas. This is wonderful news, of course, but
the message of the book is still an important one. That is, to become
extinct is a great tragedy, and we should work hard to protect endangered
species.
