Chapter 2 The Need for Conservation
Appendix 2-3
Success Story 3 — How Conservation Actions Help Protect Species
Wood Stork
According to a USFWS Species Status Assessment (2021), the Wood Stork is the only true stork species that breeds north of Mexico, with breeding populations found in the Southeastern US, Cuba, and Hispaniola, and from Mexico southward through Central and South America. Wood Storks are a wetland-dependent species. They use a wide variety of freshwater and estuarine wetlands for nesting, feeding, and roosting throughout their range. Wood Storks were listed for federal protection as an endangered species in 1984 because of steep population declines and loss of habitat. They are a colonial nesting species, and the loss of suitable wetland foraging habitats and associated colony nesting failures were cited as a primary reason for the declines (USFWS 2021) . Annual aerial surveys are an important technique for detecting colonial waterbird nesting populations because their nests are located in the tops of mature bald cypress, black gum, and mangroves (USFWS 2021) . Since North Carolina’s first state wildlife action plan (SWAP) was published in 2005, Wood Storks have been a priority Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) in North Carolina. Research, survey, and monitoring priorities called for status and distribution surveys to include Wood Storks and NCWRC biologists conduct surveys of colonial nesting waterbirds as part of the agency’s annual monitoring efforts.
Wood Storks were first detected in North Carolina in 2005 during an aerial survey by NCWRC biologists for Bald Eagle nests. Since then, NCWRC has been providing annual updates on Wood
Stork population trends and colony activities in the state to the national Wood Stork Recovery Working Group. Since 2005, biologists have found additional colonies and monitored the number of active nests. The number of active colonies differs from year to year. The highest number of colonies found in any one year has been five out of a total seven where they have been observed to
nest. The number of Wood Stork nests detected using aerial and ground surveys grew from 32 in 2005 to a peak of 698 nests in 2021. The 2024 survey count was the second-highest recorded: an estimated 639 nests. Wood Storks (Bryant Olsen, Creative Commons)
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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