Tom Bayles
WGCU Environmental ReporterTom Bayles is WGCU's Senior Environmental Reporter and a 25-year veteran journalist in Florida. Before his tenure at WGCU Public Media, he worked for The New York Times Co. in Sarasota, the Associated Press in Miami and Tallahassee, and the Tampa Bay Times in Clearwater. He earned a master's in journalism and a bachelor's in education, both from the University of South Florida. The proud father of three sons, Bayles spends his free time fishing along the Southwest Florida coast in his 20-foot Aquasport with his Whippet pup, Spencer.
Bayles’ top awards include the Gold Medal for Public Service for Investigative Reporting from the Florida Society of News Editors, the Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida, and being named the Sunshine State’s top environmental journalist by the Florida Press Club and FSNE. Bayles has been nominated four times for a Pulitzer Prize.
Email: tbayles@wgcu.org
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Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary's “super” ghost orchid has not only bloomed every year except last since it was discovered, it’s bloomed multiple times some years. And over the years, it bloomed during all 12 months. -
2025 was the driest year in over a decade for the Sunshine State. The lack of perception has been felt hard in Southwest Florida, where current extreme drought conditions are the worst since 2001. -
The Collier Community Foundation has continued its financial support of Audubon Florida’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, the popular environmental attraction east of Naples, with a $100,000 grant. The foundation’s money is being added to donations from many other individuals, groups, and businesses in the sanctuary’s $20 million renovation effort to transform and expand the aging sanctuary. -
A panther walks within the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, which is 41 square miles of unfenced land meant to give the far-ranging animal some room to hunt and breed amid South Florida's growing population, although one of three villages within the Town of Big Cypress — and the new roads and additional vehicle traffic that comes with with it, is within a mile or so of the refuge, angering environmentalists. -
The Everglades Story is being presented free online by Friends of the Everglades, a nonprofit environmental group founded in 1969 by Marjory Stoneman Douglas -
Florida panthers run free on the first tract of land completed during massive Everglades RestorationThe Picayune Strand Restoration Project repaired 85-square-miles of distorted and drained wetlands in western Collier County as 260 miles of crumbling roads were removed and 48 miles of canals were filled -
Six million pounds of ancient oyster shells from a Charlotte County mine are now a thriving 3-acre reef in the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. It is among the latest oyster reefs restored by the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. -
The slender relatives of hawks and eagles have had a bad-news, good-news, bad-news existence since 1967, when the bird landed on the Endangered Species List after many decades of draining, ditching, and channel-digging in the Everglades -
A new study verified something most people who live in Florida already know: mold is a problem here. Mold is a persistent problem across Florida, driven by the state's humid subtropical climate and frequent rainfall. Indoor mold can damage walls and ceilings, reduce property values, and create health problems in people, particularly those with respiratory conditions or weakened immune systems. The problem is worse during Florida's summer rainy season when heavy showers and localized flooding can saturate structures. -
A drought unlike any the Sunshine State has seen for more than 20 years has been drying out portions of the state — especially Southwest Florida
