The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the wood stork from the federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife. Georgia is one of the southern states in the bird’s range.
The delisting follows a significant increase in the bird’s population and nesting colonies since it was first protected in 1984.
The removal of the wood stork marks the 36th species delisted since 2017. Officials stated the decision reflects successful conservation partnerships and a focus on results-driven wildlife management that returns recovered species to state and tribal stewardship.
When the wood stork was first listed under the Endangered Species Act, the population was near extinction. The species is the only stork that breeds in the United States, but it had seen its population drop by more than 75% since the 1930s. This decline was primarily caused by the loss of wetland habitats used for breeding and foraging, particularly in South Florida.
The wood stork breeding population has grown to an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 nesting pairs spread across about 100 colony sites. This represents more than double the nesting pairs and more than three times the number of colonies recorded at the time of the initial listing.
The species has expanded its range across the coastal plains of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Wood storks have adapted to various nesting environments, including coastal salt marshes, flooded rice fields, floodplain forest wetlands and human-created wetlands.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik credited collaborative efforts for the species’ comeback. “The wood stork’s recovery is a real conservation success thanks to a lot of hard work from our partners,” he said. He added that the administration is working to remove federal protections from species that no longer require them.
Supporting documents, public comments and the post-delisting monitoring plan are available to the public at the federal regulations website under docket number FWS-R4-ES-2022-0099.
The delisting of the wood stork will become final on March 9.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has established a 10-year post-delisting monitoring plan to ensure the recovery of the species is maintained.
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