Environment

FILE - This photo provided by the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa shows the screen of a Unitronics device that was hacked in Aliquippa, Pa., Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. The hacked device was in a pumping booster station owned by the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa. An electronic calling card left by the hackers suggests they picked their target because it uses components made by an Israeli company.

States and Congress wrestle with cybersecurity at water utilities amid renewed federal warnings

The Associated Press

The hacking of the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa and other utilities around the country is prompting new warnings from U.S. security officials at a time when states and the federal government are wrestling with how to harden water utilities against cyberattacks.The danger, officials say, is hackers gaining control of automated equipment to shut down pumps that supply drinking water or contaminate drinking water by reprogramming automated chemical treatments. Besides Iran, other potentially hostile geopolitical rivals, including China, are viewed by U.S. officials as a threat.

A wetland alongside a defunct City of Sarasota golf course has been reclaimed and is now an integral part of water quality improvements in Sarasota Bay by processing runoff from eight miles of neighborhoods keeping 4,000 pounds of nitrogen from entering the bay

Environment

Water Quality Report: Defunct inland golf course part of Sarasota Bay's improvements

Tom Bayles

Even the defunct Bobby Jones golf course has contributed to water quality improvements in Sarasota Bay so that waters are cleaner now than at any time over the past 10 to 15 years

The loud and grunting pig frog is the only one of nine main species that inhabited Sanibel and Captiva islands that appear not to have survived Hurricane Ian

Environment

Water Quality Report: Pig frog, where art thou'?

Tom Bayles

The pig frog is the only one of the species that inhabit Sanibel and Captiva islands that did not make it through Ian or made its back to the islands during the last year-plus.

Environment

Water Quality Report: Everglades overseer

Tom Bayles

Col. James Booth is in charge of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Florida, which means he is also the agency’s official in charge of Everglades restoration today. He does what he is supposed to do in terms of being available to the public, but that doesn't mean he gets a pass from the media.

A Mote Marine diver returns staghorn corals to one of the marine laboratory's in-water nurseries after they were evacuated from the water during this summer’s heat event and kept at one of Mote’s land-based nurseries

Top Story

Mote Marine discovers huge potential in corals that thrived in this summer's super-heated seas

Tom Bayles

Some corals were left behind during an evacuation of many corals off Florida despite water temperatures that rose far above 87 degrees.

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

Environment

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.