The Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) has petitioned the federal government to drop the protective status of wood storks down to "threatened", effectively reducing necessary safeguards to ensure the species healthy survival. The FHBA asserts that such protections are big government regulations that impede growth, recovery, and unemployment reductions. The FHBA believes the wood stork no longer needs protections, that the species has sufficiently rebounded. However, those that study the bird's population and habitat claim this is not so. Though making a modest comeback from an all-time low population in 1978, the wood stork is far from clearing the hurdles. It will be a good while yet before the species can be safely "unprotected." Read more on this story at the Sun Sentinel.