Environment

a federally endangered green saltwater sea turtle found alive and well in a freshwater pond water quality report bayles wgcu red tide blue green algae

It’s been one year since Hurricane Ian hit Lee County at a strong Category 4 intensity. None of us here that day will ever forget what the storm meant to each one of us.

Young green sea turtle found in a freshwater retention pond near RV park in Fort Myers.The discovery of the year-old sea turtle matches one-year mark since Hurricane Ian

A group of homeowners north of Rotary Park marched in the rain earlier this week to protest the pre-development efforts of a group seeking a way to make 380 untouched acres in South Cape Coral attractive to a future developer

Double rainbows have been spotted at least twice during the last several days in nearly the same spot over the Caloosahatchee River, either ending or starting at the Interstate 75 bridge depending on the point of view

The Florida Department of Health in Lee County canceled five health warnings due to harmful algal blooms in the Caloosahatchee River

People living on Sanibel and Captiva weren’t the only ones driven from their homes by Hurricane Ian’s churning storm surge.Wildlife, amphibians and birds were displaced. Some species have come back fine, others are struggling to survive while others yet remain missing-in-action.

Join us for a conversation about the importance of gopher tortoises to our ecosystems. These large, long-lived reptiles can be found in all of Florida’s 67 counties. They play a crucial role in ecosystems because of the deep burrows they dig and live in. More than 350 other species — known as commensals — take advantage of those burrows for shelter. Their main threats are cars while trying to cross roads, and development that occurs on the land where they live.

In a midnight aimed at reducing government spending at a time of explosive growth, the Collier County Board of County Commissioners voted over night to make near across the board cuts to the county’s general funds and then make up for the intentional budget shortfalls by all but depleting the existing accounts set aside for conservation.

The widely supported land conservation program could have its funding slashed by 40 percent.