A pair of naturalists spent weeks in the wilds of South Florida in the 1930s, braving alligators and snakes to find and photograph wetland and wading birds like the gangly wood stork.
Unlike many of the birds that Helen and Allan Cruickshank found in the Everglades, the storks had not been decimated by plume hunters decades before because the homely bird's feathers weren't prized for ladies' hats. But the storks suffered when developers and agriculture operations began the ditching and draining that eventually compromised some 35% of South Florida's wetlands, where the majority of the birds nested.
By the late 1970s, the nation's only native storks had plummeted from an estimated 20,000 nesting pairs to about 5,000 nesting pairs. They wereplaced on the endangered species list by 1984.
Wood storks look distinctively prehistoric among wetland birds
Now, after 40 years of conservation and protection efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has ruled the population is no longer in immediate danger of extinction – with breeding colonies established across Florida, Georgia and into the Carolinas.
In a decision that has been years in the making, the wildlife service will remove the stork from the federal protected species list, according to a plan to publish the rule change in the Federal Register on February 10.
The species "no longer meets the definition of an endangered species or threatened species," the service stated in the notice. The removal will be effective in 30 days.
For Billy Brooks,a former biologist and wood stork recovery leadwith the service who retired in 2025, the decision is the culmination of decades of successful collaboration.
The rebuilding program "has been truly one of the great representations of how you would like to see recovery work," Brooks told USA TODAY. Expansive efforts to recover the birds included multiple governments, nonprofits, for profits and private landowners.
"The risk of (the storks) becoming endangered is quite lessened due to the extensive breeding range, the overall range and the number of breeding colonies," he said. It's "exponentially larger than historically," Brooks said.
Like other wetland and wading birds that were once found primarily in South Florida, today the wood stork can be seen in dozens of states to the north after breeding season concludes. Last yeara stork was spotted in Wisconsin,for only the third time in history.
Adaptability may have helped save wood storks
Over the more than 50 years since the Endangered Species Act was approved in 1973, more than 1,200 plant and animal species in the U.S. have been added to the list. At least five dozen have recovered to the point where they were removed from the list, including the bald eagle.
As part of their recovery, the storksexpanded into different habitats, using a mosaic of wetland types, Brooks said. "Not many other species do what wood storks have done."
The birds have figured out how to use all kinds of created wetlands, such as golf courses and retention ponds, said Dale Gawlik, endowed chair for conservation and biodiversity at Texas A & M University's Harte Research Institute. "Even when they're in odd habitats, it's still exhilarating to see these wild birds doing what they do in a natural marsh."
"The birds have the flexibility to explore new habitats and eat new foods and that might be really important in a period when the environment is changing rapidly like it is now," said Gawlik, who spent years in South Florida working on wood stork recovery before moving to Texas.
Traits that lend themselves to exploration and adaptation reduce the risks and lessens the chance for catastrophic population failures when the birds are using multiple ecosystem, he said. "This ability to exploit new human habitats might be what's saving them. That's what I'm holding on to that gives me reason to be optimistic."
What to know about wood storks
These gangly birds are sometimes called flintheads or ironheads because of their distinctive heads and necks. These facts also are worth noting about the species:
Feeds in shallow wetlands, eating fish and other aquatic prey.
Stands as tall as 45 inches and its wings span up to 65 inches.
While adults are generally silent, chicks make raucous noises that can be heard a quarter of a mile away from a nesting colony.
Opposition and concerns raised
The delisting isn't a decision everyone supports.
During a 2023 public comment period, Audubon Florida and the Center for Biological Diversity argued against removing wood storks from the list. The non-profits said it would be "premature" to delist the birds because they had not recovered to previously established goals within the Everglades and may never return to the large "mega" colonies that once existed in South Florida.
Prematurely delisting the wood stork "could impact its future viability," wrote Elise Pautler Bennett, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity in its 2023 comments. Delisting the stork might send "a false signal to the public that the wood stork no longer requires consideration, which in turn may result in reduced conservation, particularly when it comes to threats, wetland destruction and degradation," Bennett wrote.
North Carolina wildlife officials supported removing the wood stork from the list, so did Georgia wildlife officials but with caveats.
Like the environmental groups, Georgia raised concerns about what it could mean for wood stork colonies on private lands if they lose the protection from being a federally listed species.
Removal from the list doesn't mean the birds will suddenly no longer receive protections, according to the wildlife service documents supporting the decision. Federal and state programs also provide protection to those species and their habitats, as well as decades of land conservation in the Southeast, wetlands protection rules, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and other measures, the service has stated.
Concern for the future
Georgia also echoed Audubon's concerns about potential sea level rise and other climate concerns.
"Sea level rise along the Atlantic coast is well underway and almost certain to continue and accelerate," stated a letter from Matt Elliott, chief of wildlife conservation for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. At Fort Pulaski on the Georgia coast, roughly 10 inches of sea level rise has been reported over the past 50 years. If the wood storks are to be delisted, it would be critical to carry out a 'robust" monitoring program for at least 10 years, Elliott wrote.
One lingering question for Gawlik is why the birds increased, and he said he doesn't see conclusive evidence to explain it in the delisting documents. "If you don't know what caused the increase for certain how can you be sure it will be there in the long term?"
Like the environmental groups, he's concerned about potential changes to existing federal regulations that protect the birds. They're expectingdecisions by the Trump administrationthat could roll back some of the regulations governing federal wetland designations.
"If we're not protecting wetlands to the same degree, does that set up a new situation or dynamic for the wood storks." Gawlik asked. "It's really important to not only protect navigable waterways, but also seasonal or alternate wetlands."
Even small wetlands that don't look like much can be critical for the birds at crunch times, he said.
Seasonal wetlands that are drying out, for example, provide key foraging opportunities for the storks who like to feed in shallow areas where the prey is concentrated, he said. "There's no substitute for seeing wild wood storks in a wild marsh in the Everglades, feeding in a drying pool where the fish are concentrated, fishing like they've done for thousands of years."
Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, has covered climate change, wildlife and the environment for decades. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Wood storks have rebounded. Will be taken off 'endangered' list.
