Florida Everglades

South Bay, Florida: Worker Jean Tidane (foreground) wades in the water while planting Bulrush for the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) in Stormwater Treatment Area 1 West as part of a vegetation management program. A 30-year plan to restore the Everglades impacts millions of people who live, work and play in South Florida, from fishing captains and others who make their living on the water to birders and recreationists to scientists, Miccosukees and environmentalists who have invested professional and personal lives in the world’s largest environmental restoration project.

Pulling the curtain behind WLRN's new podcast 'Bright Lit Place'

Carlos Frías

WLRN environmental editor Jenny Staletovich and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Patrick Farrell talk about what it was like to wade through the muck of the Everglades to check on the decades-long battle to make the River of Grass work as nature intended.

Sundial

Pulling the curtain behind WLRN's new podcast 'Bright Lit Place'

Carlos Frías

We listen to the part of the first episode of Bright Lit Place, a new WLRN podcast distributed by the NPR Network. It was reported by WLRN's environment editor Jenny Staletovich. We also hear behind-the-scenes stories from Jenny and Patrick Farrell, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who worked on the project.

A University of Florida study found the number of python eggs in a clutch, like the one pictured here with Conservancy researchers, averaged three dozen. One estimates in the snake's native range in southeast Asia number as high as 121. The 215-pound python discovered in December in the Picayune Strand was carrying 122 unfertilized eggs.

Environment

A story on lusty pythons, and a new way to catch them, wins WLRN a national award

WLRN News

WLRN’s environment editor has won a 2023 national Edward R. Murrow award for her writing that explores sex pheromones in Burmese pythons.

Jake Waleri of Naples, right, and friends caught this 19-foot Burmese python in the Big Cypress National Preserve earlier this month, setting a world record for the longest snake of that species ever caught. The capture perhaps rid the Everglades of one of the original snakes to escape captivity in the 1990s and invade the River of Grass, where they are creating environmental havoc today. Friend Stephen Gauta helps hold up the snake after the duo brought the beast to the Nature Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples to have it measured and donated for studies

Environment

Naples man captures 19-foot Burmese python in Big Cypress; confirmed as a world record

Tom Bayles

Naples resident Jake Waleria, who is 22 and an amateur python hunter, caught a world-record 19-footer with some friends earlier this month in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

Environment

Climate change forces a rethinking of mammoth Everglades restoration plan

Amy Green

Even as the $21 billion effort unfolds, officials realize that its water infrastructure cannot contend with rising seas, violent storms and Florida’s non-stop influx of residents.

Houston Cypress is a Miccosukee poet and environmental activist based in South Florida.

Arts & Culture

This Miccosukee artist and activist lets the Everglades 'speak for itself'

Carlos Frías

Houston Cypress joins WLRN's Carlos Frías to talk about how plant medicine and translation from Miccosukee to English made him a poet. His work combines art and environmentalism with the Love the Everglades Movement. He’s also an artist in residence at Oolite Arts.

Egrets nest in Everglades National Park, like these, and in marshes throughout the Everglades where mercury can hamper breeding.

Environment

Everglades wading birds have a banner nesting season, thanks to heavy rainfall

Jenny Staletovich

The latest nesting count for Everglades wading birds found the birds had the second-best nesting season since counting began in 1996.

Environment

DeSantis outlines $3.5 billion plan for Everglades restoration and water-quality problems

Jim Turner

Governor Ron DeSantis announced plans Tuesday to spend 3.5 billion dollars in his second term on environmental projects such as restoring the Everglades and addressing water-quality problems.

Environment

Expedition retraces a legendary explorer’s travels through the once-pristine Everglades

Amy Green

The expedition that retraces the 1897 trek of an explorer and amateur scientist also commemorates the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park, which was dedicated on Dec. 6, 1947.

'The Everglades: River of Grass' takes a look back on the way forward to restoration

Leslie Ovalle Atkinson

We discuss our July Sundial Book Club pick, and why some consider ‘The Everglades: River of Grass’ one of the most important books written in the last 100 years.

White House, Broward Congresswoman and Miccosukee Leaders Tout $1.1 Billion Everglades Funding

The largest-ever federal funding package for wetlands restoration seeks to restore the natural flow of the Everglades.

An enormous mosaic of Stephan's Quintet from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

Parkland trial, a new peek into space, a lifeguard shortage and ‘The Everglades: River of Grass’

Leslie Ovalle Atkinson

The latest from the Parkland trial. We take a closer look at deep space. Plus, how a lifeguard shortage is affecting South Florida beaches. And for this month’s Sundial Book Club we chat about the River of Grass.