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 number of pelicans and other shorebirds with hooks in their pouches or stomachs, or fishing line wrapped tight around their legs or beaks dropped by 58 percent across the region after Hurricane Ian in 2022. -
Small outbreaks of blue-green algae have been happening for weeks in the Caloosahatchee River -
a pair of eastern screech owlets recently fell from their nest in a tree in Naples. They landed softly in the thick grass. Their eyes were not yet open. Then the female adult found them -
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. -
When the wildlife corridor was envisioned, subdivisions with 10,000 houses and hundreds of thousands of feet of office space were not planned. -
Blue-green algae can be dangerous. Do not drink, swim, wade, use personal watercraft, or come into contact with water if you can see a bloom. -
The Florida panthers’ numbers dwindled so quickly over the the early 1900s that hunting them was banned in 1958. In 1967, panthers were the first animal to be put on the federal Endangered Species List, and in 1973 the puma, a big cat relative, was named a Florida protected species. -
The Florida Department of Health in Lee County has issued its fifth health alert this year, four of which have been due to blue-green algae in the Caloosahatchee River. -
An important point for politicos on the entire spectrum, and we speak to them all, is how often DeSantis sends taxpayer dollars to the Everglades restoration, in this case $750 million a year
