Environment

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.

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.

An eaglet hatched at the active bald eagle nest along Bayshore Drive in North Fort Myers on Saturday afternoon with a second egg being watched.The official hatch time for the eaglet named E24 was 4:01 p.m.The new eaglet is the offspring of mated pair F23 (short for Female 2023) and M15 (short for Male 2015).A pip, or initial crack, was confirmed Sunday in the nest's second egg.

As 2024 comes to an end, some journalists are having difficulty keeping the official panther death count from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission accurate. Why is unclear.

The Peace River Wildlife Center in Punta Gorda is moving forward and officials are hopeful that the facility's education center will soon be back open. They have removed buildings at the education center and will use temporary structures so they can bring the wildlife residents home and reopen. PRWC has resumed medical care at their hospital facility.