Environment

Sea turtles had a much better nesting season this year on Keewaydin Island than in 2024. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s sea turtle research team counted 558 nests all loggerhead nests except three from green turtles. This year, more than 38,000 hatchlings made it.

The Burnt Store Water Treatment and Reclamation Facility, which offers free tours to the public on a regular basis so people have a more thorough understand of what happens there

The University of Florida’s Plant Diagnostic Center recently received significant acknowledgement as the first university-based lab in the nation to earn accreditation from the National Plant Diagnostic Network.

The state has purchased more than 20,000 acres of land in Central and South Florida to protect it from development, and most of the 31 square miles of mainly agricultural land was put into the public’s trust are within Collier and Hendry counties

The Everglades Foundation has developed an early-warning system for red tide blooms in Southwest Florida, which has been able to forecast dangerous outbreaks of Karenia brevis with up to 84 percent accuracy.

Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is a destination for the environmentally excitable whether to see the super ghost orchid in bloom or the ancent bald cypress trees. This month the sanctuary's endless fields of sunflowers are in bloom.

Peaking during weeks like this one in September and October songbirds stream south on overnight flights, shorebirds and raptors move by day, and waterfowl build up on wetlands as freezes creep south. South Florida is the winter destination for some; for others, it's a stopover on the way to the Caribbean and South America.

WGCU starting The Daily Current, an email newsletter.

Hurricane Helene breached the large dune between the Gulf and the old Midnight Pass channel. Hurricane Milton’s surge fully reopened and enlarged Midnight Pass

The Florida Department of Health in Lee County said that tests completed this week found the previously high level of enterococcus has decreased to an acceptable level, and it has lifted its advisory.