The 2005 Wood Stork Symposium: An Introduction

Abstract

The Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) is only member of Family Ciconiidae (storks) that nests in United States. Like other storks in genus Mycteria, it feeds by tactilocation, requiring dense populations of aquatic prey in shallow wetlands to forage efficiently. As such, Wood Stork is a bio logical indicator of health of these deli cate, often ephemeral, wetland systems. The ephemeral nature of these wetlands makes them especially susceptible to draining and other human-related impacts. Historically, Wood Storks primarily used wetlands in south Florida Everglades for nesting and foraging. As hydrology of Everglades changed in response to urban and agricultural development and water use, quality of foraging conditions declined. Wood Storks apparently responded to changing conditions by shifting their nesting colony locations within Everglades as well as to north, with substantial portions of population now known to breed in Geor gia and South Carolina. Before and during early periods of shift in nesting loca tions, population of breeding Wood Storks declined from ~15,000 nesting pairs to -5,000 nesting pairs by mid-1980s (Coulter et al 1999). In response to de cline, Wood Stork was federally listed as Endangered in 1984 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: USFWS 1986), and has also been af forded protection through state listings in Al abama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Given endangered status of Wood communication, coordination, and information transfer among regulatory agen cies, research institutions, and other con cerned groups is vital to Wood Stork conser vation. One of first symposia to address Wood Stork ecology and their status occurred just over two decades ago. A symposium at 1986 Colonial Waterbird Society Annual Meeting addressed the Ecology and Conser vation of Storks, with resulting papers be ing published in Colonial Waterbirds (Vol ume 10: Issue 2) in 1987. Although sym posium was on all species of storks, there were five papers concerning endangered Wood Stork. Topics of these particular arti cles covered basic aspects of their ecology such as population dynamics, foraging habits, winter range, and a management technique (artificial foraging impoundments). In 1993, Georgia Conservancy hosted a Wood Stork symposium in Savannah, Geor gia. Proceedings from this symposia con tained articles summarizing historical and re cent occurrence and nesting of Wood Storks in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, as well as documentation of management meth ods and new directions in research. Since