A federal judge has been asked to stop a $319 million eastern Arkansas public works project to protect the newly discovered ivory-billed woodpecker.
Lawyers representing the National Wildlife Federation contend continued construction of the Grand Prairie irrigation project would irreversibly damage the habitat of the bird that was believed extinct until sighted last spring, the Arkansas News Bureau reported Tuesday.
Federal attorneys, however, told U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson the project would affect only a few of the thousands of acres that make up the bird's habitat in the woods of eastern Arkansas. They argued that without the project, the region's underground water source could disappear in a decade.
The judge said he would review written documents submitted by both parties in the lawsuit and may require another round of oral arguments, the News Bureau reported.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
