"Search for the Rare Ivorybill"

In “Search for the Rare Ivorybill” Don Eckleberry begins by establishing his ethos and as well as a connection with his audience by giving some of his personal background as an artist. He continues by telling the story of James Tanner’s journey to find the last ivory-billed woodpecker, “possibly the rarest bird in North America.” Throughout the story Eckleberry informs his audience of some the politics that go on behind the scenes as well as some of the negative effects that the lumber industry has on the environment; these companies go through and cut massive amounts of land, taking only the best lumber and leaving all the rest to rot away and destroy the ecosystem in which hundreds of animals live. He continues by vividly describing Tanner’s journey and his findings. The amount of detail he uses when describing the ivory-billed woodpecker causes the audience to feel a personal connection, as if they were witnessing it firsthand. Throughout the entirety of the story, Eckleberry weaves in the idea that humans will go to any length, like destroying the habitat of hundreds of animals, just so long as they can make a couple bucks in the process.

              After reading this, I still cannot fathom why the lumber companies were so unwilling to cooperate and continued to cut down all of the trees even after learning of such a beautiful magnificent bird that was pretty much extinct. As Stephanie said, it’s crazy to think that roughly 200 species go extinct every day. We, as humans, need to do something in order to prevent this from happening. The problem is that we, especially Americans, are so caught up in our own self-interest that we choose to ignore all of the negative effects that we have on the environment. In order to prevent this mass extinction, we need to push the entire country into action so that we all understand the idea of conservation and what we can do to lessen our negative effects on the environment.