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22. Aftermath
- The University of Tennessee Press
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Chapter 22 Q Aftermath We are just money grabbers. We are not concerned, as you folks, with ethical considerations. — The chairman of Chicago Mill and Lumber Company Afterwatchingthetwofemaleivory-billsnorthofSharkeyRoad,Tannerreturned to Nancy in Tallulah. They quickly packed for the long drive back to Johnson City, a distance of roughly seven hundred miles. It would be forty-four years before Jim would return to the Tensas. A lot would happen in the interim. Upon his return to Tennessee, Tanner was asked to file a report on what he found in the Singer Tract with the National Audubon Society. He composed it quickly: time was of the essence. Dated January 3, 1942, it’s a matter-of-fact account , with an underlying sense of urgency. Even though he had only seen two live ivory-bills, he had found recent feeding sign of one in Mack’s Bayou and heard reliable reports of others. He concluded that there was probably still the same number as in 1939. Probably. “The only significant change in the numbers of ivory-bills that has occurred recently is the apparent and unexplained disappearance of the male birds from the John’s Bayou area,” Tanner wrote. He only found the two females feeding along the edges of the recent cutting. Perhaps trying to put a hopeful spin on things, he speculated that the adult male and the banded Sonny Boy could have relocated because of the logging. Jim noted that the war had sparked a new demand for timber. The Tallulah mill was working night and day, with Chicago Mill and Lumber hard pressed to supply enough logs. And even though Tanner had pointed out the kinds of trees that ivory-bills needed, S. C. Alexander, their logging department head, did not seem overly optimistic that they could be spared. The good news: “Most of their cutting has been done on the west side of the Tensas River, away from most of the ivory-bill territories,” Jim reported, estimating that it would take over two years to finish there. The bad news: “They have already done some cutting on the east side of the river, and unfortunately, right 244 Aftermath in the middle of what used to be the best ivory-bill range.” Sharkey Road, the same primitive thoroughfare that had given Jim easier access to John’s Bayou and other eastern sections, served the same purpose for the timbermen. Much logging had been done during the summer between his last two visits. Tanner concluded his nine-page report with some recommendations, conceding that because of the increased demand for wood fueled by the new world war, preserving the entire Singer Tract was probably no longer an option. It was too late for that anyway. However, he hoped that a few prime sections could be spared. All were east of the river, but several had already been partially cut. His fallback position was something of an ecological Hail Mary: the recommendation that key trees be spared. Jim hoped that perhaps the trees in the lowlands could be left standing because these old trees were not that valuable: often they were defective, having spongy parts, dead tops, or dying branches. The best timber, the healthy living trees on the ridges, was not what the woodpeckers fed on anyway. Thus, Tanner was down to a plea to save certain trees and dead or dying ones at that. Even if the lumber company complied, could this possibly be enough? The wartime demand for lumber was overwhelming. The War Department needed wooden crates of all sizes to ship tanks, guns, food, equipment, you name it. Chicago Mill could supply as many shipping boxes as it could possibly turn out. But a curious thing happened: so many able-bodied men left Madison Parish for the war effort that the lumber company had trouble finding a workforce . Without it, selling the land to become a wildlife refuge, principally to protect the ivory-billed woodpecker, began to look appealing. The lumbermen wanted to make their money while they could. Responding to the recommendations and information Tanner had supplied , Audubon’s John Baker had done his part to rally support. At first, untouched Greenlea Bend was on the table. Chicago Mill wanted $200,000 for the four thousand acres, and Governor Jones had the money. (The governors of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi, plus officials for the Roosevelt Administration , pitched in with an appeal to the Chicago-based consortium and the Singer Company to save the land.) By...