Jennifer Reed

Deep within the seemingly endless saw-grass marshes of the Florida Everglades, I found myself standing on an unexpected speck of dry land on a bright spring day. The boat ride to this spot had fully exposed my tour group to the blustery wind and midday sun, and the island, by contrast, felt lush and welcoming, ringed by trees that cast shadows and tempered the gusts and insulated us from the elements beyond.Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Tribe whose salt-and-pepper hair was pulled bac...

The wait to return to Sanibel Island on Thursday was agonizing for residents and business owners, many of whom were still rebuilding from Hurricane Ian in 2022 and just digging out after Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.“The anxiety and PTSD with Ian, I swear every one of these is taking another five years off my life span,” said Sean Niesel, 34, who took over the Shalimar Beach Resort from his grandparents after it was battered by Hurricane Ian.The resort still hasn’t recovered from the hurricane...

Island communities in Lee County, Fla., endured another bruising overnight — almost two years to the day after Hurricane Ian killed dozens of people in the county and devastated Fort Myers Beach.Even though Hurricane Helene made landfall hundreds of miles to the north, its storm surge inundated roads and gushed into buildings in Fort Myers Beach, which sits on a barrier island on the southwest Gulf Coast. Many of the damaged buildings were newly renovated or still in the process of being repaire...

A plant made headlines this month, though not for reasons we like: Scientists believe the United States has lost its first vascular plant species in the wild due to sea-level rise.The Key Largo tree cactus (Pilosocereus millspaughii) was known to exist in the U.S. in only a single location, a limestone outcrop at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. A biologist discovered it in 1992, after seeing its columns, which can reach as tall as 20 feet, emerge from a mangrove canopy. Writing in the July...