Everglades

Registration is open for the 2026 Florida Python Challenge, a 10-day competition that offers participants a shot at $25,000 in prizes for removing invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades. The event runs from July 10 through July 19.

A majority on the three-judge panel from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals said the Florida-run facility wasn't under federal control and didn't need to comply with federal law requiring an environmental impact review.

Environmentalists want to permanently open a dam built for a canal that was supposed to cut through the middle of Florida from the Atlantic to the Gulf. The canal project was dropped more than half a century ago because of environmental concerns, but the dam was built and now some people want it removed or opened. That would drain a reservoir behind it, bringing back springs and helping with fish, manatees and wildlife crossings.

A permit to allow the first phase of constrution on the massive Southland rock mine in Palm Beach County’s Everglades Agricultural Area has cleared a key legal hurdle.

Federal lawyers say any reimbursement — if it comes — would cover only operational costs.

At a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava urged commissioners to uphold her veto rejecting a new heavy equipment headquarters on wetlands when they meet Wednesday.

The Everglades seldom benefit from invasive species. Burmese pythons have unraveled food webs for decades. Green iguanas damage landscapes and infrastructure. But now, as non-native species of apple snails disappear, the endangered Everglades bird, the snail kite, is paying the price.

Gov. DeSantis says the state can expedite the massive restoration effort. Some environmentalists wonder whether costs will climb and environmental regulations will be ignored.

The Picayune Strand Restoration Project repaired 85-square-miles of distorted and drained wetlands in western Collier County as 260 miles of crumbling roads were removed and 48 miles of canals were filled

State and federal officials who had been scheduled to attend the conference in Naples this week said Wednesday they would not attend, leaving organizers scrambling to replace speakers.

A proposal to build a sprawling heavy equipment depot on protected wetlands outside Miami-Dade County’s urban development boundary, and adjacent to some of its most flood-prone neighborhoods, is drawing opposition from county planners and environmentalists.

The president alleged the tribe had ‘sought to obstruct’ his immigration policies.