Many believe that scientists in the 30's and 40's may be a big reason for the disappearance of the ivory billed woodpecker. Once it was known that there were few left many a museum sent out people to collect specimens. Something like 500 were collected in 10yrs. Also, they were around much longer than first thought, but many of the people that owned the land did not come forth till many years later for fear of restrictions placed on their property.
Maybe instead of woodpeckers some people would understand the relationship of habitat loss and it's effect on game if we talked about decreased pheasant numbers in some areas or decreased bobwhite quail in MO. It really didn't take a huge loss of habitat to have a devastating effect on game birds in some places, as we've probably all witnessed.
Now I know somebody will jump in and say there are still lots of pheasants in South Dakota, but how's the pheasant population doing in other states? How about bobwhites? Bobwhites in MO is a real good example.
That's true Ithaca. I don't think many people care about woodpeckers or owls, if they went extinct most people wouldn't care at all. Eastern Washington used to have excellent pheasant hunting up until the 70's. My dad used to hunt around Moses Lake and that's where thousands of other guys went from all over the state to hunt pheasants. Now there are virtually no pheasants there, because of the change in farming practices. Sure, in a good year the state owned wildlife areas can have quite a few birds, but it's pretty limited. Private land is a waste of time. They don't leave any cover for wildlife anymore, like they in the 70's. Hopefully with the many salmon runs in danger of going extinct, people will start to care more about the environment. Salmon are worth money, so that's a good thing. Nobody cared about spotted owls because they were just an inconvenience and an expense, and got in the way of making money.
