Homebuilders want wood stork protections downgraded - Charlotte Business Journal:

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“The continued listing of the wood stor k under the Endangered Species Act has blocked developmeng and mining projects that could have provided jobsfor thousands,” said Stevejn Geoffrey Gieseler, managing attorney with the ’es Atlantic Center office in Stuart, which is representingh the association. Ken Warren, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlif Service, said the wood stork populatiob has shown signs of stabilizing at 8,000 nesting pairse or 16,000 breeding He said even if the wood storkl is downgraded to “threatened” status, that won’ty necessarily mean any greate freedom to build on its habitat.
“Whenj you talk about the EndangeredSpecies Act, and threatened versus endangered, it’s a dubious distinction. It still means the species is not doin well and it is protected under the Warren said. "It doesn’t weaken existinv protections, nor does it make it easiefr or harder to build in woodstork habitat.” A recent five-year review of the wood stork’s numbere suggested it is doing better and could theoreticallty be downgraded, but it was only a he added. The wood stork, prevalent in Centrap and South Florida, was listex as "endangered" in 1984.
The petition cites a 2007 federalo review that found the reclassification is warrantec because the wood stork numbersx are increasing in thesoutheastern U.S.