Environment

It will soon be a new day in the treatment of sick and injured sea turtles at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel Island. Hurricane Ian devastated the nonprofit wildlife hospital in September 2022

Fishing for tarpon on the Big Indian Rocks Pier as a teenager, WGCU senior environmental reporter Tom Bayles says he cannot remember ever smelling a red tide or seeing blue-green algae. Now, they are both blooming at the same time where he lives

The Lee Board of County Commissioners Tuesday voted to award a $1.8 million contract for a a Regional Alternative Source Water Study in east Lee County and Lehigh Acres and a $174,334 proposal to develop a countywide wildfire protection plan.In other action, the Lee Board of County Commissioners also voted Tuesday to approve an agreement with Collaboratory to allow the county to address a series of objectives included in the $19.3 million Community Change Grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to tackle environmental challenges related to disaster preparedness.

Manatees and sea turtles are vulnerable to cold snaps like the Arctic blasts this month as cold air can drop the temperature of shallow water along Southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast by two degrees every day

Southwest Florida may be the driest part of the state right now, but forecasters are in agreement that they have no clue what comes next: a rough wildfire season, or calm in the woods

In this installment from the StoryCorps Mobile Tour visit to Fort Myers in March 2024, we hear Ernesto Lasso de la Vega speaking with his former boss, who would later become the first Calusa Waterkeeper, John Cassani, about Cassani’s early ground-breaking research that created a tool for managing severe aquatic plant overgrowth without the use of pesticides, and how that tool became an industry standard.

A type of harmful blue-green algae is so great in Lake Avalon that it remains closed to water sports enthusiasts for the third month. Meanwhile, red tides 15 miles wide are blooming in the Gulf of Mexico. In Southwest Florida, blue-green algae like the summer and fall, while red tide's time is the cooler winter and spring — but both harmful algae have taken hold in places throughout the region.

Keep Charlotte Beautiful will be hosting a Tire Amnesty Day event from 8 a.m.-12 p.m., Jan. 25 at the Charlotte County Administration Center parking lot located at 18500 Murdock Circle, Port Charlotte.

From January 9, through March 1, Punta Gorda will be running its annual seawall assessment.During low tide periods, city staff will inspect seawalls in the southwest and southeast zones of Punta Gorda Isles. The boundary of these zones is Aqui Esta Drive, Punta Gorda Isles perimeter canal, Almar Drive, Muscovie Court, and around the tract of land known as Bird Navigation.

The Florida Department of Health in Lee County has issued a health alert for the presence of red tide near Gasparilla Island State Park Beach. This is in response to a water sample taken on December 30.