In 2000, South Florida Water Management reported a spectacular 400% increase in Wood Stork nesting from the 1999 nesting season.  The best nesting season since the 1940s!  Ibis Tours' mascot, the White Ibis did even better with ten times the 1999 nests, or about 22,000, the best nesting season since the 1960s.  The list goes right on to Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets,  with an overall wading bird population increase of 40% and the third consecutive year of growth.  

The Miami Herald reports that "Scientists cannot point to any one factor in the increase, but one of the most important is South Florida Water Management changing its longstanding practice of moving flood waters into the Pay-hay-okee, the River of Grass.  This practice raises the water level and disperses the fish the wading birds feed on.  Unable to find enough food for the hatchlings, the birds abandon their nests."  This news coming on the heels of the $7.8 billion Everglades restoration signed in 2000 by former President Clinton, this gives promise that the Everglades can return to its former glory.