Contacts:
Connie Dickard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 318-574-2664 or 601/941-6395 (cell)
Tim Ahern, Trust For Public Land, 202-255-0761
Suzanne Cousineau, Entergy, 504-576-4352

WHAT:

On May 23, conservation partners will join to celebrate the recent addition of 2,900 acres to the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and tour a model wildlife conservation project at the refuge. Prior to the recent sighting of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas, the Singer Tract, which is now part of the Tensas refuge, is the location of the last sighting of the species in 1944.

WHO:

• Renae Conley, President and CEO of Entergy Louisiana
• Don Morrow, Senior Project Manager for Trust for Public Land
• Marshall Jones, Deputy Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Representative for U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu
• Representative for U.S. Congressman Rodney Alexander
• Tolbert Williams, a refuge employee who was born in the area prior to the disappearance of the last Singer Tract Ivory-bill, will also be available to describe what the refuge was like when the “Lord God Bird” was still here.

WHEN:

Monday, May 23, 2005
10 a.m. – Project Briefing; 10:30 a.m. - ceremony/media availability 11:15 a.m. – tour of reforestation and remaining mature forest

WHERE:

Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge
2312 Fred Morgan Senior Road, Tallulah, LA

DIRECTIONS:

Refuge is approximately 60 miles east of Monroe, LA and 35 miles west of Vicksburg, MS. From Monroe on I-20: Exit 157 (Waverly) and turn left on to Highway 577. After approximately 2 miles, turn right on to Highway 80. Drive 8 miles and turn right on to Fred Morgan Senior Road. Go 10.5 miles (gravel then pavement). The visitor center and headquarters is on the left.

From Vicksburg on I-20: Exit 171 (Tallulah) and turn right on to Highway 65. Go 2 miles to Tallulah. Turn left between the court house and Popeye’s on to Highway 80. Drive 8 miles, turn left on to Fred Morgan, Senior Road. Go 10.5 miles (gravel than pavement). The visitor center and headquarters is on the left.

BACKGROUND:

• Entergy, the Trust for Public Land, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have partnered to add more than 2,900 acres to Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge. Entergy has invested 1.5 million to acquire the land and to reforest and manage the property. This is part of the four-year, $15.7 million Chicago Mill Lumber Company project by the Trust for Public Land and FWS, which will add 11,000 acres to the refuge and reforest more than 8,600 acres.
• Strong support from the Louisiana Congressional delegation has been instrumental in the funding effort. Both Senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter and Congressman Alexander support this project as well as former Senator John Breaux.
• The partnership combines the cutting-edge science of sequestering carbon from the atmosphere with land conservation. This innovative strategy may be the key to protecting the threatened floodplain of the Lower Mississippi River.
• As part of the partnership, Entergy will retain the right to report carbon sequestration credits which may derive from their reforestation efforts.
• The Lower Mississippi River floodplain forest is one this country’s most threatened ecosystems. More than 17 million acres of forestland have been lost since the early 1900s due primarily to timber harvest and conversion to agriculture.
• The 70,000-acre Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge protects 55,000 acres of bottomland hardwoods.

Ivory-bill Woodpecker Fact Sheet -- (pdf)

For more information, including photos, visit:

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, http://www.fws.gov/southeast/; http://www.fws.gov/tensasriver/; Carbon sequestration, http://www.fws.gov/southeast/carbon/; Entergy Corporation, http://www.entergy.com/corp/; Trust for Public Land, http://www.tpl.org