Honey, Who Shrank The Alligators?

By Amy Green
NPR
In the Florida Everglades, the alligators are in trouble.

The reptiles are scrawny, weighing 80 percent of what they should. The alligators grow more slowly, reproduce less and die younger. Researchers are trying to figure out why this iconic species is in decline — and what it means for the Everglades. Listen here.

Florida Gulf Coast Mystery: Why Did The Birds On Seahorse Key Vanish?

By Amy Green
NPR
It used to be Seahorse Key was the largest bird colony on Florida's Gulf Coast, home to up to 20,000 nests. Now silence has replaced the din of noisy nesting birds and researchers are puzzled. Listen here.

Florida Sea Turtles Stage Amazing Comeback

By Amy Green
NPR
When scientists first started counting the nests of green sea turtles in one area in the 1980s, they found fewer than 40 nests. In their last check, they counted almost 12,000. Listen here.

NASA Battles Rising Sea Levels To Protect Kennedy Space Center

By Amy Green
NPR
Sea level rise is beginning to affect the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A protective dune not too far from the launchpads has collapsed and waves have washed over railroad tracks built in the 1960s. Now NASA is taking steps to protect its launch infrastructure. Listen here.

'Greening' Squeezes Florida's Citrus Industry

By Amy Green
NPR
Florida's citrus industry has been hit hard by "greening." The disease has caused a sharp drop in the number of oranges, grapefruits and tangerines harvested in the Sunshine State. Listen here.

The Kissimmee: A River Re-Curved

By Amy Green
NPR
It sounds almost superhuman to try straighten a river and then recarve the curves.

That's what federal and state officials did to the Kissimmee River in Central Florida. They straightened the river in the 1960s into a canal to drain swampland and make way for the state's explosive growth. It worked — and it created an ecological disaster. So officials decided to restore the river's slow-flowing, meandering path.

That billion-dollar restoration — the world's largest — is a few years from completion. And so far, it's bringing signs of new life, especially on a man-made canal that was dug through the heart of the river. Listen here.

In Sugar Price Supports, Sour Tastes For Consumers

By Amy Green
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
BELLE GLADE, Fla. — Behind every candy bar and can of soda is a complex government program of import tariffs and farmer loans establishing the price of sugar. The program, which has been in place in one form or another since shortly after the founding of the United States, is responsible for the success of Florida’s $1.3 billion sugar industry, the nation’s largest producer of sugar cane. Read more here.