Tom Bayles
WGCU Environmental ReporterTom Bayles is WGCU's Senior Environmental Reporter and a 25-year veteran journalist in Florida. Before his tenure at WGCU Public Media, he worked for The New York Times Co. in Sarasota, the Associated Press in Miami and Tallahassee, and the Tampa Bay Times in Clearwater. He earned a master's in journalism and a bachelor's in education, both from the University of South Florida. The proud father of three sons, Bayles spends his free time fishing along the Southwest Florida coast in his 20-foot Aquasport with his Whippet pup, Spencer.
Bayles’ top awards include the Gold Medal for Public Service for Investigative Reporting from the Florida Society of News Editors, the Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida, and being named the Sunshine State’s top environmental journalist by the Florida Press Club and FSNE. Bayles has been nominated four times for a Pulitzer Prize.
Email: tbayles@wgcu.org
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The remote-controlled “Robobunny” is designed to lure the stealthy Burmese python out of hiding so trappers can pounce. Burmese pythons have been slithering, eating, and reproducing throughout the Everglades since at least 1979. -
The University of Florida’s Plant Diagnostic Center recently received significant acknowledgement as the first university-based lab in the nation to earn accreditation from the National Plant Diagnostic Network. -
The state has purchased more than 20,000 acres of land in Central and South Florida to protect it from development, and most of the 31 square miles of mainly agricultural land was put into the public’s trust are within Collier and Hendry counties -
The Everglades Foundation has developed an early-warning system for red tide blooms in Southwest Florida, which has been able to forecast dangerous outbreaks of Karenia brevis with up to 84 percent accuracy. -
Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is a destination for the environmentally excitable whether to see the super ghost orchid in bloom or the ancent bald cypress trees. This month the sanctuary's endless fields of sunflowers are in bloom. -
Peaking during weeks like this one in September and October songbirds stream south on overnight flights, shorebirds and raptors move by day, and waterfowl build up on wetlands as freezes creep south. South Florida is the winter destination for some; for others, it's a stopover on the way to the Caribbean and South America. -
Drought is the third-costliest natural disaster in the country, and goverment scientists just reported in an academic journal the natural disaster is poised to get worse -
Hundreds of amateur and professional photographers enter the popular photo contest every year. All the shots must be taken within one of Florida's 175 state parks, trails, or historic sites. -
Hurricane Helene breached the large dune between the Gulf and the old Midnight Pass channel. Hurricane Milton’s surge fully reopened and enlarged Midnight Pass -
A Naples homeowner found a bald eagle tangled in vines, called the experts from the von Arx Wildlife Hospital, where the bird was treated and released back into the wild
