Environment

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.

Microcystis, a type of cyanobacteria commonly called blue-green algae seen above under high magnification, can bloom in Florida freshwater systems. Microcystis species are well-known for forming harmful algal blooms in Florida lakes, rivers, and estuaries, including Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River. These blooms often appear as fluorescent green surface scums and can produce toxins that can pose health risks to humans and animals. Microcystis blooms are common in warm, nutrient-rich freshwater environments in Florida, especially during summer, but can occur year-round.

After successfully ending the practice of spreading biosolids, Desoto residents brace for the possibility it may return

For FGCU's University Police Department, the work can get a bit wild.From time to time, UPD has to deal with animals that have wandered onto campus.The most recent animal case was on March 25, when a 6-foot alligator wandered onto the South Village (SoVi) boardwalk.

Pointing to ongoing threats to manatees, a U.S. district judge Friday said the state has violated the federal Endangered Species Act in its regulation of wastewater discharges into the Indian River Lagoon.Orlando-based Judge Carlos Mendoza issued a 21-page decision that sided with the environmental group Bear Warriors United, which argued discharges into the waterway along the East Coast led to the demise of seagrass and, as a result, deaths and other harm to manatees.

A water shortage in Cape Coral and Lee County. Parched soil and worsening drought throughout Southwest Florida. Wildfires are expected next, and not small ones.The restrictions were put into place to protect the Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer and drinking water supply in that area. The area affected is bound by NE Pine Island Road on the south, Neilson Road N on the west, NE 24th Avenue and Garden Boulevard on the east and the Gator Slough Canal on the north.

An appeals court rules the sugar industry could not take water meant for the Everglades when the EAA is completed in about a decade

Calusa Waterkeeper meets to discuss its future, gather donations, and listen to experts like Mike Parsons from FGCU's The Water School

The Army Corps has been sending Lake O water down the Caloosahatchee River for months to lower the depth in the lake, which harms the estuary.

State panther biologists are hoping the sometimes cruel fate of nature does not repeat itself this year after they checked on a trio of kittens born to a mother who lost last year’s litter to a hungry black bear. They posted pictures of the baby panthers on Instagram