Environment

It’s the first week of sea turtle nesting season in Southwest Florida, and this year the thousands of loggerheads and greens that nest on our beaches have a new ally in nine-year-old entrepreneur Naomi Haynam. The Cape Coral pre-teen so loves sea turtles she’s making beach-themed earrings and selling them at home, online, and in parks to raise money to donate to volunteer sea turtle protection groups.

Joe Cavanaugh, the Calusa Waterkeeper hired last May, is no longer with the organization. Calusa Waterkeeper is a nonprofit that works to protect and restore the Caloosahatchee River from Lake Okeechobee to the coastal waters of Lee County.

When hatchlings go the wrong way, it's almost kindly called a "disorientation." But the fact is, nearly every time they perish headed in the wrong direction, it's a preventable death sentence. Nowhere in Southwest Florida is it worse than on Fort Myers Beach. Even town officials admit it, working hard for that to change.

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.

FWC invites residents to explore wildlife areas through a fun, interactive scavenger hunt across Florida’s public lands.

A free event — dubbed “Beneath the Surface: The Environmental Stories Shaping our Community” — starts at 3 p.m. April 15 inside the Bayfront Community Center in Sarasota behind the Municipal Auditorium. Presented in partnership with the Science and Environment Council, it is part of Suncoast Searchlight’s ongoing community engagement series supported by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

AccuWeather is forecasting fewer tropical storms than in recent years, in large part due to wind shear arriving with an El Niño expected later in the season. At the same time, they worry that record-warm Gulf waters may fuel hurricanes strong enough to overpower that wind shear

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

Sarasota Ballet commemorates the 250th anniversary of the United States this weekend with “Stars and Stripes,” a ballet frequently performed at national events, including presidential inaugurations. Also on program is “’Still Life’ at the Penguin Café,” a cautionary tale about our seeming indifference to the survival of our environment.

Massive piles of sargassum, the size of which have not been seen before, are floating this way, right now, sure to coat the beaches of Florida’s East Coast, the Keys, and various Caribbean islands