Rare woodpeckers’ habitat needs help, too

[Arkansas] Much like the bird that drew attention to it, Bayou de View — where birders reported seeing an ivory-billed woodpecker — is critically endangered, researchers said Thursday. University of Arkansas at Fayetteville graduate students spent last fall slogging through hip-deep mud to study the cypresses and other trees in the eastern Arkansas bayous. They found a forest of bald cypress and tupelo, an ecosystem that has all but disappeared from the landscape. Researchers estimate that less than 12,500 acres (5,000 hectares) of such a forest remain in the south, a fraction of the original 42 million acres (17 million hectares).