In Volyn, public organizations and schoolchildren of the region organized a survey aimed at establishing the exact number of Volyn white and black storks, as well as the area of their distribution. The head of the regional Bird Protection Society, Mykhailo Khymyn, said that the first stork census using a survey was conducted at the end of the 19th century in Poland. Later these studies continued in Soviet Ukraine. The research by Volyn schoolchildren and scientists is extremely relevant; it will make it possible to establish the number of storks after the increase in their population over the past 10 years. Thus, the participants of the "Stork-2004" campaign found that in Volyn there are about 3 thousand white storks, and the population of the rare black stork amounts to 450 individuals. According to ecologists, the increase in their number is evidence that the ecological condition of the Polissia districts of Volyn is gradually improving.