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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Collecting, cleaning, and recycling clam and oyster shells to restore and create new reefs is a growing volunteer movement in Florida to enhance and protect coastal ecosystems, improve water quality, and protect shorelines from erosion -
The Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual — LOSOM , a set of guidelines on how, when, and where water will be released from Lake Okeechobee — was made official this week -
A lot surrounding Hurricane Debby's arrival brings back memories of Hurricanes Ian and Idalia and the water quality problems they caused. Will it happen again?
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Last year, sea turtle nests were lost when Hurricane Idalia whipped up Florida's Gest Coast before making landfall in the Big Bend during the last week of August as a Category 4 storm. This year, Hurricane Debby disturbed sea turtle nests again along that coast before making landfall in the Big Bend during the first week of August as a Category 1. -
Real pink flamingos, not the cheesy plastic ones in the front yard, return to South Florida via hurricane after winds catch them between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula -
Environmentalists remain perplexed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' recent veto of a wildly popular bipartisan bill to safeguard the state’s coastlines and protect the health of beachgoers because he believed it gave the Florida Department of Health too much power -
The 'Super' ghost orchid at Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was discovered in July 2007, and has been in the spotlight each summer since as it continues to produce many flowers year-after-year. -
Two encore Water Quality Report columns by Tom Bayles can help put global warming into perspective and some hints from the NYT can provide pointers on slowing climate change -
This year's sea turtle nesting season is going great, with a leatherback on Sanibel and early nesting throughout the region. But few turtle lovers forget last season when early signs were record-breaking but the season's results were heart-breaking -
Blue-green algae's cyanobacteria and red tide Karenia brevis possess types of little healthy things that when properly synthesized by licensed medical researchers can fight a host of diseases
