Wood storks at risk after losing federal protections

WASHINGTON — Today the US Fish and Wildlife Service removed federal protections for the U.S. breeding population of wood stork, an iconic, large wading bird only found in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Today’s premature decision puts the Southeast’s wood stork colonies at risk because of its shrinking wetland habitat in the face of extraordinary federal rollbacks and climate change.  

 Wood storks depend on wetland habitats for every stage of life, including nests in bald cypress, sweetgum, and mangrove trees in wetlands throughout the Southeast. Georgia and South Carolina are some of the largest nesting hotspots for the bird. The U.S. breeding population of wood stork was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1984 because the population had declined more than 75%. In 2014, FWS reclassified the population from endangered to threatened. FWS proposed to delist the population in February 2023.  

After FWS proposed delisting the wood stork, the Supreme Court issued its sweeping 2023  Sackett v EPA decision. Sackett, and unfavorable state responses to that loss of federal oversight, cutback protections and put millions of acres of wetlands across the South at risk. This past November, the Trump Administration issued a proposed rule that, if finalized, would roll back federal protections even further, putting even more wetlands at risk. This drastic loss of wetlands protection will have a negative impact on the wood stork’s chances of survival.  chances of survival.  

In response Ramona McGee, SELC’s Wildlife Program leader, released the following statement:  

“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.  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.”