The W.P. Franklin Lock was reopened to traffic Thursday. The facility closed Wednesday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers due to silting by the gates.

Old tires are notoriously effective mosquito-breeding habitats. Lee County Mosquito Control will accept passenger car tires at an event rescheduled for Jan. 11 due to Hurricane Milton in October.

The Florida Department of Health in Collier County advises caution due to the presence of red tide near Vanderbilt Beach found in water samples taken this week.Meanwhile, a similar caution has been lifted at Bowman's Beach in Lee County.

The W.P. Franklin Lock is closed to traffic until further notice.A notice of the closing was issued Wednesday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

South Florida Fire & Aviation will conduct a series of prescribed fire operations across Big Cypress National Preserve over the coming months, as weather conditions and other parameters permit. The planned treatment areas cover approximately 115,639 acres in three separate burn units, strategically placed throughout the preserve as part of a multi-year fuels treatment plan.

Land and conservation easements worth $318 million and designed to protect more than 85,000 acres of Florida’s most important wildlife habitats and rural ranchlands were approved for purchase by the state Cabinet Tuesday.Many of the proposed easements are part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor.The purchased conservation lands cover 134 square miles, or 2.5 times the size of the City of Miami, and constitute the largest increment of conservation land and easement purchases ever proposed on a single Cabinet agenda. House and Senate leaders in the Florida Legislature included strategic appropriations for conservation land acquisitions and easements in Florida's budget—an important investment in Florida's economy, ecology, and quality of life.

A second egg has hatched successfully at the eagle nest along Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers.Designed as eaglet E25, the newborn chick joined its sibling E24 shortly before 6 a.m. Tuesday.The eaglets are the second chicks to hatch from mated pair F23 (short for Female 2023) and M15 (short for Male 2015).

Red tide samples are coming up positive throughout Southwest Florida, but it's offshore where it's making an impact when anglers arrive to find out the organism got into the live wells and killed their bait.

Saldrone's award is part of a federal and state initiative to support infrastructure, habitat mapping, restoration projects, resource management, emergency response, and coastal resiliency and hazard studies. At 2,170 kilometers long, Florida’s coastline is second only to Alaska among U.S. states. Many parts of the Florida coast remain not surveyed, with existing nautical charts relying on outdated and low-resolution data.

Florida could move toward its first sanctioned bear hunt in nearly a decade.The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Wednesday directed officials to bring forward proposals for a possible bear hunt. The proposals are expected to be completed by a May commission meeting, giving staff members time to compile data from ongoing studies about bear populations and gather more public input.