Big Cypress National Preserve

There have been four wildfires in six weeks within the Collier County portion of the Everglades. The 1,700-acre Newman Fire, near the Picayune State Forest, and the 41-acre Jetport fire, about five miles from the federal detention facility Alligator Alcatraz, are both at least 75 percent contained. Another two are over.

The Newman Fire, which broke out in east Naples along the Picayune State Forest this week, was the third of four notable wildfires in the Western Everglades over the last six weeks.

The fire burning for a week in a corner of the Big Cypress National Preserve has retracted by almost 100 acres, reducing from 511 to 420 acres and contained by firefighting efforts at 65 percent.

The size and scope of the wildfire that's been burning in the Big Cypress National Preserve for over a week took a small step back Friday with a reduction in fire area and a small increase in containment. Better mapping helped make those changes and placed the National Fire at 35,027 acres burned and at 67 percent contained by late Friday, according to a press briefing issued by the command structure of the wildfire. That was about 300 fewer acres and three percent more containment.

A pair of wildfires broke out late Sunday near Alligator Alley in the Florida Everglades. One of the fires grew to almost 25,000 acres Wednesday just south of Alligator Alley in the Big Cypress National Preserve near Ochopee. Several roadways are threatened by smoke and flames and a safety advisory has been issued.

An active brushfire in 2,600 acres of the Big Cypress National Preserve in Hendry County is 95 percent contained today.

South Florida Fire & Aviation will conduct a series of prescribed fire operations across Big Cypress National Preserve over the coming months, as weather conditions and other parameters permit. The planned treatment areas cover approximately 81,002 acres in 4 separate burn treatment units, strategically placed throughout the preserve as part of a multi-year fuels treatment plan.

Tribal leader: 'Our tribe is small, any hardship to one family is felt by all'

Lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades say that “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been barred from meeting attorneys. They also say that the detainees are being held without any charges and that federal immigration courts have canceled bond hearings. A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was held Monday over the lawsuit. Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to detainees, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

A state plan to house as many as 1,000 immigrants with criminal records in a remote Everglades area "fenced-in" by alligators and pythons brings protestors to abandoned former jetport area off U.S. 41. The area, inside Big Cypress National Preserve, retains special and sacred meaning to Native Americans and conservationists.