The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proud to announce the removal of the U.S. distinct population segment of wood stork from the federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife. Since the beginning of President Trump's first term in 2017, the Service has delisted 36 species from the Endangered Species Act due to recovery. These delistings reflect successful conservation partnerships and the administration’s focus on results-driven wildlife management that returns recovered species to state and tribal stewardship. The Trump administration continues to advance policies that strengthen species recovery while reducing unnecessary federal restrictions.
“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.”
When the wood stork was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1984, it was on the brink of extinction. As the only stork species that breeds in the United States, its population had plummeted by over 75% since the 1930s. This sharp decline was largely due to habitat loss, especially in South Florida, where vital wetland areas for breeding and foraging had been severely diminished.
Today, the wood stork breeding population is estimated at 10,000-14,000 nesting pairs across roughly 100 colony sites — more than twice the number of nesting pairs and more than three times the number of colonies compared to when the species was listed. Wood storks now inhabit the coastal plains of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. They have adapted to new nesting areas, moving north into coastal salt marshes, flooded rice fields, floodplain forest wetlands and human-created wetlands.
The Service has a 10-year post-delisting monitoring plan to ensure the species’ recovery is maintained.
The proposed and final rules, post-delisting monitoring plan, supporting documents and public comments are available at https://www.regulations.gov under docket number FWS-R4-ES-2022-0099.
The delisting of the wood stork will be final on March 9, 2026.
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