Tom Bayles
WGCU Environmental ReporterTom Bayles is WGCU's Senior Environmental Reporter and a 35-year veteran journalist in Florida. Prior to 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 degree in journalism and a bachelors 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 is a recipient of the Gold Medal for Public Service from the Florida Association of News Editors, the Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Reporting, was named top environmental journalist in Florida by the Florida Press Club, and received a Gold Charley Award for public service long-form feature writing from the Florida Magazine Association. Bayles has been nominated four times for a Pulitzer Prize.
Email: tbayles@wgcu.org
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Southwest Florida is in the midst of an abnormally dry to moderate drought. -
Daryl Thompson scours the Everglades and similar areas worldwide for natural elements that he is convinced can be used to treat ailments
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Captains for Clean Water has added Captain C.A. Richardson to the nonprofit’s board of directors. Richardson has been a professional fisherman and television guide
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This time of year, when there is still some moisture in the backwoods, yet it hasn’t been raining every day, creates perfect conditions for professional firefighters to light a “controlled” or “prescribed” fire.
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It is Manatee Awareness month in November, poignant in particular in Lee County, which leads Florida with more than 100 sea cow deaths so far this year
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Born from fire, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is now slowly drying out and a solution is proving elusiveCorkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is slowly drying up due to development and flood control projects that have been redirecting the water flow that is the lifeblood of Audubon Florida's popular environmental attraction in the Western Everglades east of Naples.
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has nearly halved the acreage involved in its plan to establish a large conservation area in Southwest Florida
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The Florida Department of Health in Lee County has canceled five health warnings due to harmful algal blooms in Southwest Florida that have been in effect all summer from the upper Caloosahatchee
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A state auditor sent down from Tallahassee to perform a standard assessment of the taxpayer-funded Collier Mosquito Control District found its men and women doing a good job
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The sea turtle nesting season that started just months after Ian hit ended up setting records for loggerhead turtles on Sanibel and Captiva island.
