April 10 is the annual Gopher Tortoise Day. Without this keystone species, entire ecosystems in Florida and other states would unravel. NPCA is working to save them, and here’s how you can help. On a ...

A billionaire developer and Englewood residents are in conflict over a proposed road extension in Sarasota County. Developer Pat Neal plans to build the Manasota Beach Road extension, connecting his ...

A rescued gopher tortoise arrived at the Nokuse Nature Preserve in Florida’s Panhandle while my sister Erica and I were there. It didn’t know how lucky it was. Across Florida, builders are required to ...

Southwest Florida’s warp-speed development of expanding roads, home communities, retail centers and commercial parks creates thousands of jobs. Planners, architects, landscapers, bricklayers, ...

Every resident has to pay their fair share to live in Manatee County — tortoises, too. The county will collect $725,040 over the next five years from the Florida Department of Transportation’s Florida ...

My iPhone’s GPS couldn’t find the Heritage Ranch Gopher Tortoise Preserve. It claimed I’d already arrived, although I clearly had not. Turns out, the preserve is located farther east than the digital ...

Florida gopher tortoises are a threatened species and 365 others depend on their burrows. Florida development boom is leaving little room for the native land tortoises. Developers may have to relocate ...

With their signature noisy tails, rattlesnakes have often captured people’s imagination, in books and movies, or in the wild. “Nobody is apathetic about rattlesnakes,” said Jimmy Stiles, a biologist ...

Volunteers from the Florida Native Plant Society conduct yearly surveys to monitor the status of a native plant holdout in a region confronting rapid development. (Courtesy of Valerie Anderson) Their ...

What would you say are some hallmarks of longtime Floridians? As a Florida native, I’d say a love of our plentiful outdoor wonders, an appreciation for the frequent absurdity of our news headlines, ...