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The Cache River Refuge was established in 1986, so what about the other 40 years we didn't protect it?
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The Cache River Refuge is probably the reason the bird still exists.
Take a look at this satellite photo:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=26320+...9206&t=k&hl=en
See the long dark green band meandering up and to the right, east of the refuge headquarters? That's the woodpecker habitat along Cache River. Notice how narrow the band is, and that it is completely surrounded by cleared farmland and development.
If the refuge and other conservation efforts hadn't been instituted to protect the waterfowl and other endangered species in the area, most likely that narrow little band would be either clearcut or farmland now.
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"There has got to be a pretty serious lineage," Gill said. "It's got to be more than a few" Frank Gill is the senior ornithologist at the Audobon Society. I'd say he has some idea of the size of the colony.
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... and Frank Gill also believes the bird should be protected now.