In the wake of the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, it seemed fitting to ask Billy Brooks to take me on a bit of wild goose chase — or, to be more precise, a wild stork chase.
Brooks, 62, is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, working out of the Jacksonville field office.
He started his conservation career 40 years ago, working with sea turtles on Bald Head Island in his native North Carolina. Manatees brought him to Florida. He helped write their recovery plan and start the right whale program before getting involved with plants and birds.
For more than 20 years, he has been shepherding the recovery of the wood stork — a big, long-legged wading bird that in the 1980s was feared to be on a path to extinction.
You’ve probably seen wood storks in Northeast Florida. If you’re like me, you take that for granted. But you shouldn’t.
The Endangered Species Act, which became law on Dec. 28, 1973, has had many success stories in the last 50 years. Bald eagles, American alligators, gray wolves, peregrine falcons.