Environment

A person finds the baby alone, assumes the worst, and scoops it up. State wildlife officials say most of those rescues were mistakes. However, many of the baby creatures that flood the region's animal hospitals every spring were never in trouble.

Afternoon showers have been popping up throughout Southwest Florida since the year began, but more so since the summer rainy season started May 15 in places like Collier County where 4.5 inches have fallen in less than three weeks. That’s inspired the watering restrictions and outdoor burn bans to an end in some communities, while others are leaving them in place for now.

Audubon Florida wants poets from Southwest Florida and the rest of the state to write haikus celebrating both vulture species ahead of International Vulture Awareness Day on the first Saturday of September each year

Failing clean water standards would have consequences that spread beyond the Everglades.

It’s tough to overstate the importance of mangrove forests along Florida’s Gulf Coast, where they shield homes and lives from hurricane storm surge, especially a repaired portion like part of what is now the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

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.

Phil Klotzbach is one of the pre-eminent tropical storm forecasters and, in person, he’s clearly a hurricane encyclopedia.

The Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park‘s Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk Expansion project came about after the walkway was damaged by Hurricane Ian and closed in 2022. Reconstruction began in 2024 and it reopened in late 2025. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the reopened boardwalk was held at the Collier County-sited park Saturday.

A North Captiva Island homeowner recently captured a true "Circle Of Life" moment in the front yard of her house in Safety Harbor.

“A Paddlers Guide to Everglades National Park” is the third talk in a series of free Calusa Blueway Paddling Trail-related programs. The talk will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, at the Wa-Ke Hatchee Recreation Center, 16760 Bass Road, in Fort Myers.