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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Every year, VoLo Foundation’s Climate Correction Conference gets somewhat glitzier, its speakers a bit more prestigious, the event a little better attended. One day of main events has become three. Longer presentations have been tightened to fit everyone onto the schedule. More chairs and more tables are brought out because the conference has grown from 200 people last year to 250 this year. The theme this year centered around the notion that the environment has already engineered answers to the climate challenges facing the planet. -
Millions of shorebirds use Florida's beaches and dune systems during nesting season, with about 20 species along the Gulf from February to August. Watch where you step. -
Climate Correction Conference has grown from a small gathering of academics, researchers, and nonprofit leaders to become a two-day event addressing causes and solutions to slow down, if not reverse, global warming and its effects -
NOAA, the USDA, and the National Drought Mitigation Center mentioned the Fort Myers region twice. Once to extend the current year-long drought in greater Lee County and to increase from severe to extreme. -
On the same week that federal climate forecasters said the drought in the greater Fort Myers area had worsened and will not be going away soon, Lee officials issued guidelines for county residents to weather the weather until it returns to normal. -
The size and scope of the wildfire that's been burning in the Big Cypress National Preserve for over a week took a small step back Friday with a reduction in fire area and a small increase in containment. Better mapping helped make those changes and placed the National Fire at 35,027 acres burned and at 67 percent contained by late Friday, according to a press briefing issued by the command structure of the wildfire. That was about 300 fewer acres and three percent more containment. -
A program with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, the sea school offers its wildlife education in many ways: to school groups, in camps, in a family setting, and either on a public part of the beach or at the resort where vacationers are staying -
Phil Klotzbach is one of the pre-eminent tropical storm forecasters and, in person, he’s clearly a hurricane encyclopedia. -
A pair of wildfires broke out late Sunday near Alligator Alley in the Florida Everglades. One of the fires grew to almost 25,000 acres Wednesday just south of Alligator Alley in the Big Cypress National Preserve near Ochopee. Several roadways are threatened by smoke and flames and a safety advisory has been issued. -
Urgent warnings about wildfires breaking out throughout the north and northeastern portions of Florida Saturday will shift south to the Tampa Bay region Sunday, and into Southwest Florida Monday.
