Wood storks were classified as endangered in 1984 due to habitat loss

NEED TO KNOW

• Jim Stevenson and Tara Tanaka bought a 45-acre swamp to save it from development, and now it is a flourishing conservation area
• The land is home to an estimated 275 nesting wood storks and hundreds of other animals
• Wood storks were classified as endangered in 1984 due to habitat loss, but were recently removed from the endangered species list

A Florida couple bought a 45-acre swamp to save it from development. It has since become a flourishing conservation area for wildlife. 

Jim Stevenson and Tara Tanaka were living in a home outside of Tallahassee, Fla., when they purchased a nearby swamp in 2007 in an effort to protect it from development, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 

In 2022, the agency stated that the land had 275 nesting wood storks, among other animals. 

Other birds in the swamp include blue herons, great egrets, green herons, anhingas and wood ducks. Bobcats, raccoons, foxes, otters, beavers, coyotes, rabbits and alligators also reside on the property. 

Stevenson and Tanaka took their protection efforts further by obtaining a conservation easement from the Apalachee Land Conservancy in 2016. 

The conservation’s impressive wood stork population is significant, as the animal was classified as endangered in 1984 due to habitat loss. The birds were reclassified from endangered to threatened in 2014, per the National Park Service. The bird was later removed from the federal endangered and threatened species list after its population continued to increase.

FWS shared the news about the stork’s updated status in February, stating that there are between 10,000 and 14,000 nesting pairs of wood storks across 100 colony sites. The birds, which are native to North America, have been found in 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,” FWS stated. 

WFSU Public Media ran a story on the couple in 2019, noting the popularity of wood storks at the conservation.  

“Wood storks nest in colonies, and every cypress tree seems to have two or three nests. Every nest has two to three chicks, on average,” the article stated. 

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Stevenson, a retired biologist, and Tanaka, a naturalist photographer, spoke about the importance of conserving natural lands in a 2021 interview with the Tallahassee Democrat. 

Stevenson said at the time, “The problem is people.”

“From human waste, the insistence on perfect lawns that require fertilizer, septic tanks that drain into the aquifer and springs, and the reduction in water flow … there’s a good chance that it will all go,” he explained. 

Tanaka shared that her multimedia work documents species that may be threatened in the future.

“I think in my lifetime, there will be the extinction of many,” she said. 

Stevenson encouraged people to look into the “many kinds of biology you can make into a career.”

He said, “Land conservation, fire management, exotic species eradication, springs, waterways, lakes, and the study and protection of animals of the land and air … any one of those professions would help to keep what we have.”

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