Seminar Goes on Trail of Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

The ivory-billed woodpecker is the most elusive woodpecker in America, hiding in swamps and floodplain forests. Or it may be extinct. The March 12 program in the Fisheries and Wildlife Seminar series at the Centennial Campus Center for Wildlife Education in Raleigh will examine the search for the bird, from first-hand perspectives of two searchers.

Dr. Diane Deresienski and Dr. Greg Lewbart of N.C. State will discuss their 2006-’07 trip to the Florida Panhandle as members of an Auburn University-led research team.

The range of the ivory-billed woodpecker once extended into North Carolina. The last confirmed sighting was in 1944 in Louisiana, though probable sightings in Arkansas in 2004-’05 created hope that the species had avoided extinction.

The seminar is free and no registration is required. The series is presented by N.C. State’s Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences Program and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. For information, call (919) 707-0203.

MOORESVILLE BOATER WINS: Boater Alfred Kiesling, Sr. of Mooresville, won the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League North Carolina Division tournament on Lake Norman on Feb. 23 with a five-bass catch weighing 17 pounds, 2 ounces. Kiesling earned $5,032.

STEWART HONORED: Wildlife management technician David Stewart was recently named the Wildlife Management Professional of the Year for 2007 by the North Carolina State Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation. Stewart is credited with improving wild turkey habitats in the southeastern Coastal Plain. He has worked for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission since 2003, and leads management activities on 71,734 acres of land in his area.

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