What:
The Nature Conservancy with support from Woodland Park Zoo will host a multi-media event, “Hope Takes Flight,” about the remarkable rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker. Phillip Hoose, author of The Race to Save the Lord-God Bird, and Gene Sparling, the kayaker whose sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas triggered an extensive scientific search, will speak about the bird’s near-extinction, efforts to save its imperiled habitat, and its sensational rediscovery.

The event is sponsored by Goldman Sachs, Huntington Steele, NBBJ, and Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation And SNW Asset Management.

When:
Wednesday, November 9, 7:30 p.m.

Where:
Town Hall in Seattle, located at 1119 8th Avenue.

Cost:
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased by visiting the Conservancy’s Web site.

Info:
For more information about the ivory-billed woodpecker, please visit www.nature.org/ivorybill. For more information about the event, please visit www.nature.org/washington.

Other:
Long believed to be extinct, the magnificent ivory-billed woodpecker was rediscovered in the swampy bottomlands of eastern Arkansas in early 2004 and publicly announced by The Nature Conservancy and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology last April, an event that touched off headlines around the world and a flurry of scientific activity and even controversy. The bird’s last confirmed sighting had been more than 60 years ago.

The ivory-bill, the largest woodpecker in North America, vanished after extensive clearing destroyed millions of acres of virgin forest throughout the South between the 1880s and mid-1940s. It was rediscovered in the Big Woods of Arkansas, where the Conservancy and its partners have safeguarded more than 120,000 acres.

Accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, award-winning Woodland Park Zoo is famed for pioneering naturalistic exhibits and setting a standard for zoos all over the world. With conservation, education and excellent animal care at the core of the zoo’s mission, the zoo is helping to save endangered species in Washington state and around the world including tree kangaroos, snow leopards, red-crowned cranes, African wild dogs, western pond turtles and Oregon silverspot butterflies. By inspiring visitors and others to care and act, Woodland Park Zoo is making a difference in our planet’s future.