Environment

Shortly before 7:30 p.m. Thursday night E26 popped into the world, freshly hatched and fully out of its shell.

The tiniest crack in one of the eggs laid in the North Fort Myers nest along Bayshore was reported early Wednesday by the Southwest Florida Eagle Cam web site

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.

Bats keep the mosquito population down. But they also are an important sentinel species as their health and population trends provide an early warning system for broader environmental threats, including humans.

All three major forecasting institutions — AccuWeather, Colorado State University, and the National Weather Service, overpredicted total storm counts before the season, although all three correctly anticipated above-normal, major hurricane activity. But there will be no landfalling hurricanes in the U.S. in 2025

The Interior Department proposed reviving a suite of changes to Endangered Species Act regulations first made during the Republican's first term. Those changes were reversed under former President Biden.

Mangroves are far more important than most people realize. Without them, barrier islands could wash away. With them, mangrove roots trap sediment, building land over time.

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.