TN summer stork may soon be off the endangered species list

Knoxville, Tenn. (WATE) – North America’s only native stork, which lives in Tennessee for part of the summer, may soon be removed from the endangered species list according to the US Department of the Interior.

According to a Tweeter shared by the Department, the potential removal of the Wood Stork reflects a successful conservation and recovery effort spanning four decades.

According to the National Audubon Society, the wood stork lives primarily in Florida, parts of southeastern Georgia, and a small corner of South Carolina near the Georgia Board and the coast. The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency says that occasionally between mid-July and September, storks can be found in marshes, shallow ponds, and mud flats in Tennessee.

The bird’s notable markings are its dark head and beak as well as the black markings on the edge of its wings. Reaching just over a meter in length, the bird has a wingspan of 61 inches but weighs only around 5 pounds according to TWRA.

FILE – In this November 27, 2005 file photo, a wood stork prepares to land in a tree at Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida. Federal officials say the population of endangered wood storks has rebounded to the point where they can now be classified as threatened. Some conservationists, however, oppose the proposed enhanced status, saying significant threats remain to the birds, especially in the Everglades, where they once thrived but have recently escaped. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
An adult wood stork comes in for a landing during a tour of the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge by U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in Townsend, Ga., Thursday, June 26, 2014. Jewell announced on Thursday that the government federally makes the wood stork an “endangered” species — a step up from endangered that indicates the birds are no longer considered threatened with extinction. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
In this photo from Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019, a wood stork sits on the top of a tree near Fort Myers, Florida. The species has been listed as threatened to threatened, but new studies show that invasive pythons are now increasingly targeting waders. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
FILE – A wood stork calls from the treetops on October 29, 2019, near Fort Myers, Florida. The unsightly but graceful wood stork, which was on the brink of extinction in 1984, has recovered enough in Florida and other southern states that US wildlife officials proposed on Tuesday, February 14 2023 to remove the wader from the endangered species list. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

The population of Wood Storks had been in decline since the 1960s due to water management practices in South Florida and habitat loss in the Everglades, TWRA said. While that period was around five to six decades, living wood storks may only be a few generations away from those that were alive in the 1960s. According to TWRA, the wood stork can live between 20 and 30 years.