The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center is both the new gateway into Everglades National Park and the final sign that Everglades City has recovered from a devastating blow from Hurricane Irma nearly nine years ago

Fifty-Eight manatee deaths have been recorded in Lee County since Jan. 1 this year, the majority of those coming since the period of frigid weather hit Southwest Florida according to the final report regarding the recent mass death of manatees in Lee County and made Wednesday by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.

Dog Beach Park, 14436 Bonita Beach Causeway, Bonita Springs, will be closed temporarily Monday, March 2, through Tuesday, March 3, while the Lee County Department of Transportation conducts maintenance work to address erosion issues and improve the park entrance.

Water-quality testing in Southwest Florida occasionally reports high concentrations of enterococcus bacteria, which are found inside the intestinal tracts of humans and animals, similar to the spike in the bacteria discovered off Fort Myers Beach this week. New testing found the levels dropped and an advisory lifted.

UF’s master naturalist training is designed to help people to better understand the Sunshine State’s unique ecosystems — focusing on coastal environments, freshwater wetlands, and upland habitats

The Florida Wildlife Commission reports that a third panther has been found dead since the beginning of December.The most recent big cat death is a 9-month-old, male Florida panther. Remains of the juvenile animal were collected on Monday in Hendry County and the suspected cause of death is vehicle collision.

A land acquisition approved by the state Wednesday includes 10,996 acres within the Caloosahatchee Big Cypress Corridor in Collier and Hendry counties. Also approved for purchased was a 1,059-acre rural lands protection easement within the Siboney Ranch Project in Okeechobee County.

An encore presentation of Gulf Coast Life featuring Ed Carlson, the long-time warden of Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary (he retired in 2012). Carlson died on Dec. 9.

The seventeenth Florida panther death was reported Friday by the Florida Wildlife Commission. It was the sixteenth big cat death by vehicle impact in 2025.

Landscape and architecture experts from the University of Florida will be on Sanibel Island next month to discuss how to lessen tropical storm damage on barrier islands by using what nature offers and climate change, stronger storms, and the loss of mangroves and sand dunes can make flooding worse — and how residents can turn things around to lessen the impacts.