Georgia stork to be removed from federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife
By Dan Raby
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GEORGIA (WUPA) — A Georgia bird is set to be removed from the federal government’s list of endangered and threatened species after seeing its population grow, officials say.
The wood stork, the only true stork that breeds in the U.S., was once on the brink of extinction when it was put on the list as part of the Endangered Species Act in 1984. Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that the stork’s population dropped by over 75% since the 1930s, mostly due to habitat loss.
In the years since, officials say they’ve seen a positive change. Today, the wood stork’s breeding population is estimated at between 10,000 and 14,000 nesting pairs across around 100 sites — more than twice the number of pairs and over three times the number of colonies compared to when it was listed.
Wood storks are now found in 13 counties in southern Georgia and around the state’s coast, as well as Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
“The wood stork’s recovery is a real conservation success thanks to a lot of hard work from our partners,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik. “The Trump administration is working quickly to remove federal protections from species that no longer need them, and I’m proud that the wood stork is another example of that.”
Some advocates are concerned that the delisting may hurt the iconic bird.
In a release after the announcement, the Southern Environmental Law Center called the decision “premature” because of shrinking wetland habitats.
“This is a short-sighted and premature move. Wood storks need wetlands to survive, and that habitat is facing overwhelming pressure. It is disappointing that Fish and Wildlife Service largely brushed away serious concerns about how losses to wetlands protections and climate change’s consequences for our coast increase threats to our U.S. population of wood stork,” said Ramona McGee, SELC’s Wildlife Program leader. “This delisting comes at a time when species face a storm of proposed federal rollbacks to habitat protections that are likely to imperil wood storks and countless other Southeastern species.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service said it has a 10-year monitoring plan to make sure the species continues to recover.
The delisting will be final on March 9.
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