The recovery of the wood stork from near extinction in the mid-1980s to sustainable population levels today is leading the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to propose removing the shore bird from the federal list of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife.
The potential delisting would mark "a major conservation milestone" after decades of large-scale restoration and conservation work in the wood stork's habitat in the southeast U.S., the Department of the Interior (DOI) reported in the Feb. 14 announcement.
"The wood stork is recovering as a result of protecting its habitat at a large scale," FWS Assistant Secretary Shannon Estenoz said in the announcement. "This iconic species has rebounded because dedicated partners in the southeast have worked tirelessly to restore ecosystems, such as the Everglades, that support it."
The FWS states in its proposal to delist the wood stork that the decision is "based on a thorough review of the best available scientific and commercial data" finding that the wood stork has recovered and threats to it are "being adequately managed," so the aquatic bird is no longer defined as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA).
The wood stork, described by the Audubon Society as "a very large, heavy-billed bird that wades in the shallows of southern swamps," is North America's only native stork. The long-legged birds are approximately 50 inches tall and have a 60- to 65-inch wingspan, according to the FWS, with nesting pairs producing two to five eggs per nesting season.
The wood stork population dropped from 20,000 nesting pairs to fewer than 5,000 pairs when the species was placed on the ESL in 1984, and were primarily nesting in Florida's Big Cypress and Everglades ecosystem, according to the announcement.
"Today, the wood stork breeding population has doubled to 10,000 or more nesting pairs and increased its range, including the coastal plains of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina," the DOI reports.
The number of nesting colonies has more than tripled, from 29 to 99, as the wood stork has moved north and adapted to new areas in coastal salt marshes, old flooded rice fields, floodplain forest wetlands, and human-created wetlands, according to the DOI.
Taking the wood stork off of the ESL doesn't take away federal and state protections, according to the DOI. Federal and state environmental regulations "will continue to protect this species and the wetland habitats it depends upon," the DOI reports.
DOI Sec. Deb Haaland said the ESA, which turns 50 in 2023, "provides a critical safety net for fish, wildlife and plants and has prevented the extinction of hundreds of imperiled species, as well as promoted the recovery of many others, and conserved the habitats upon which they depend."
“The proposed delisting of the wood stork is a significant milestone," Haaland said, "and a testament to the hard work by federal agencies, state and local governments, Tribes, conservation organizations, and private citizens in protecting and restoring our most at-risk species.”
