Environment

Nobody has heard the pig frog grunt on Sanibel Island since Hurricane Ian.

I can explain how red tide can be here and not be here simultaneously. Part of it lies in how that sneaky basic component of red tide, Karenia brevis, is, along with the vernacular use of “red tide” versus the scientific meaning. And seagulls.

Florida’s environmental groups have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to step in and set water-quality standards to protect Florida’s residents, and visitors from the health dangers posed by harmful algae blooms

Add Glades County to the list of those issuing burn bans across the state due to drought-like conditions.The Glades County Commissioners issued the ban this week after determining emergency conditions including extreme drought and related weather concerns ex

Feeling helpless in the face of global warming is so prevalent it is now an identified condition called “climate change doomism.” Therapists are now working with clients on the issues it creates.

Yale Climate Connections is dealing with climate change doom and gloom. Some may they think it’s too late to fix the problem (it’s not), or that not enough people care.

Black Birders Week 2024 is featuring a series of virtual and in-person events throughout the country to allow folks to engage with Black leaders and experts in the birding community

Two groups will occupy the sandy real estate in Southwest Florida this Memorial Day weekend: people and shorebirds. Beneath many of the people will be towels or blankets; underneath many shorebirds will be their next generation. That’s why holiday beachgoers will have a good chance of seeing an Audubon Florida volunteer shooing people away from nesting areas

It’s the time of year when warnings about blue-green algae outbreaks will be a regular part of life and this space and the department of Health in Lee County issued its sixth health advisory this year due to blue-green algae in the Caloosahatchee River.

Coontie is usually a 3-foot tall shrub that looks somewhat like a miniature palm. But it’s not a palm – it’s a cycad – distantly- but most-closely related to the exotic gingko tree of China. It is also distantly related to pines. Coontie is a plant that almost disappeared by the late 1800s as a result of habitat destruction and losses due to its use in producing a starchy product called “Florida Arrowroot”. As Coontie disappeared, so too did the tiny black, orange, and blue Atala Butterfly and its orange-red caterpillar with two rows of yellow spots along its back and scattered short black hairs covering its body. Atala Butterfly caterpillars adapted to feed on the stiff Coontie leaves and store the toxins from the plant in its body.