Environment

The poster for BioQuest, a documentary about Daryl Thompson's efforts to find healing properties in the Everglades, sits on top of one of the all-terrain four-wheelers used by Thompson and his team

Documentary shows adventurer who says Everglades holds keys to curing illnesses

Tom Bayles

Daryl Thompson scours the Everglades and similar areas worldwide for natural elements that he is convinced can be used to treat ailments

Environment

Clean-water advocacy group adds Capt. C.A. Richardson to the board of directors

Tom Bayles

Captains for Clean Water has added Captain C.A. Richardson to the nonprofit’s board of directors. Richardson has been a professional fisherman and television guide

After a controlled burn new grasses take quick advantage of the cleared-out underbrush and grow quickly, and while flames blacken the bark of the trees the forest is healthier than before as fire not only contributes to the overall health of the forest but many seeds and creatures that inhabit the trees are dependent on the heat to reproduce

Environment

Controlled burns keep carbon stored in trees, reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Tom Bayles

This time of year, when there is still some moisture in the backwoods, yet it hasn’t been raining every day, creates perfect conditions for professional firefighters to light a “controlled” or “prescribed” fire.

A section of the 2.25-mile boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary that leads more than 100,000 visitors a year over a wet meadow and into a stand of bald cypress trees in the distance. Water levels in the swamp have been down during the last several years in a decline the sanctuary's scientists say is due to canals dug for flood control during the last century, homes and businesses built in the greater Corkscrew watershed during the last few decades, and other man-made changes to the climate in and around the swamp. Researchers are not sure the swamp can be saved.

Environment

Born from fire, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is now slowly drying out and a solution is proving elusive

Tom Bayles

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is slowly drying up due to development and flood control projects that have been redirecting the water flow that is the lifeblood of Audubon Florida's popular environmental attraction in the Western Everglades east of Naples.

Overall 489 manatees have died this year in Florida as of October 27th, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Of thsoe deaths, 104 have been in Lee County, the largest number of all Florida's counties.

Environment

Lee County again leads state by wide margin in manatee deaths

News Service of Florida

Lee County again leads the state in manatee fatalities with 104 reported deaths, more than double any other county in the state, according to a News Service of Florida report.

Environment

Gulf protection petition for endangered Rice's whales denied

Jim Turner/News Service of Florida

Federal officials’ rejection of a petition seeking to protect a rare whale species in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico has proponents saying the action leaves the endangered species “at risk of extinction.”

At left is the original Southwest Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Area. At right is the now reduced in size and renamed Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area.

Environment

Proposed Southwest Florida wildlife conservation area renamed; size reduced

Tom Bayles

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has nearly halved the acreage involved in its plan to establish a large conservation area in Southwest Florida

Many locals expected heavy blue-green algae outbreak in Southwest Florida this summer like this one pictured above in the St. John's River recently

Environment

Blue-green algae lessening in Caloosahatchee River

Tom Bayles

The Florida Department of Health in Lee County has canceled five health warnings due to harmful algal blooms in Southwest Florida that have been in effect all summer from the upper Caloosahatchee

A klarge section of the Antarctic is doomed to melt despite any changes humans may make, a new study has found.

Environment

Even with carbon emissions cuts, a key part of Antarctica is doomed to slow collapse, study says

The Associated Press

No matter how much the world cuts back on carbon emissions, a key and sizable chunk of Antarctica is essentially doomed to an “unavoidable” melt, a new study found.

Some of the estimated 8,934 pounds of debris from the Captiva Island waterways collected during the fourth annual Captiva Coastal Cleanup on Sept. 30.

Environment

Captiva Coastal Cleanup collects more than 8,900 pounds of debris

A record-breaking 150 Southwest Florida locals came together to participate in the fourth annual Captiva Coastal Cleanup on Sept. 30, collecting an estimated 8,934 pounds of debris from the Captiva Island waterways.