ERIC STAATS

A proposed private boat dock and boat basin just inside Gordon Pass had drawn objections from neighbors and some Naples Bay boaters for years, but it won city approval Wednesday with barely a whimper of protest.

A proposed settlement of a long-standing $92 million property rights lawsuit against Collier County has drawn the ire of environmental groups and the developer of a nearby commerce park.

Donna Crowe became a green-cleaning convert this summer after she broke her arm and hired an eco-friendly maid service to help with the housework.

On a sunny day in March, Kenneth Nolan was riding his Ducati motorcycle along a stretch of U.S. 41 East through the Big Cypress National Preserve when a Florida panther ran into the road in front of him.

Severely eroded stretches of Vanderbilt and Naples beaches will get a little more sand under an emergency declaration authorized Tuesday by Collier County commissioners.

Becky Speer steps out of her minivan into darkness and stands on the side of a long dirt road, her arms motionless at her side and her ears in overdrive.

Clam Pass has changed course in North Naples, raising concerns about safety and beach erosion and sending Collier County coastal managers scrambling to fix it.

Beekeeper David Johnson's bare hands worked slowly as he picked apart a honeycomb crawling with bees he had pulled out of a water meter box on Marco Island.

Collier commissioners Jim Coletta and Donna Fiala are standing by comments they made earlier this week suggesting that commissioners' votes on the Immokalee Area Master Plan had been bought.

A piece of the push to sink more artificial reefs off the Collier County coast fell into place with a Tuesday vote by Collier County commissioners.

For almost 30 years, alligator trapper Dave Regel was the man to call when one of the creatures crept unwelcome into a Collier County neighborhood.

Patrons of a North Naples shopping center were aghast this summer to find crews had cut down mature shade trees and palms in the parking lot to make room for a landscape redesign.

Collier County has tallied a preliminary tab from Tropical Storm Isaac of more than $1 million, enough to put the county in line for federal assistance should the storm trigger a disaster declaration.

The jellyfish invasion that turned stretches of Naples beaches into zones of pain this weekend isn't so much scary as it is predictable.

Folks in Goodland grabbed their measuring tapes Monday morning. They wanted to keep track of the rising waters creeping ever closer to their front doors as Tropical Storm Isaac swept through the Gulf of Mexico.

Isaac changed course Sunday, sending fear to the Crescent City and leaving prepared Southwest Floridians waiting and wet.

Hurricane Isaac has made landfall in southeast Louisiana with winds near 80 mph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm's center reached land at 6:45 p.m. in Plaquemines Parish, about 90 miles southeast of New Orleans.

Naples is refusing to give up its fight to keep slow speed zones on Naples Bay, but cracks were showing Wednesday in the city’s resistance.

A longstanding fight between developers and environmental groups over saving key wetlands in a northern Collier County slough has come to an end.

Naples will appeal a judge's order that struck down slow speed zones on Naples Bay.

Trey Radel's rise from Southwest Florida broadcaster to a Republican nomination for Congress began with a leap into unknown territory.

Tuesday was cleaning day at a popular Collier County fishing spot. A crew of divers hauled up at least 500 pounds of debris — cast nets, fishing line, lures, anchors, crab traps and ropes — from the Santa Lucia artificial ...

Immokalee voters declared support Tuesday for a new town master plan that has been mired in controversy for months and now heads to a vote next month by Collier County commissioners.

Florida is stepping up its assault against nonnative lionfish spreading through the state's coastal waters and putting marine ecosystems at risk.

If a picture says a thousand words, the photo on Commissioner Tom Henning's election campaign mailer screams them.

As she kept an eye on the treetops Wednesday at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Marnie Thorne admitted to being a little butterfly crazy.

After commercial fisherman Jonathon Cannon was found guilty last month of illegally netting 6,500 pounds of mullet off Marco Island, he felt dirty — and wronged.

July is in the weather books, but Southwest Florida could be about to hit its tropical stride in August. The Atlantic didn't spawn a hurricane last month, something that hasn't happened since 2009, and a lack of rainfall in July ...

A team of rescuers lifted a manatee nicknamed Caxy out of the back of a delivery truck and back into its home waters around Marco Island on Monday to the cheers of onlookers.

Three environmental groups sued the Army Corps of Engineers, the state and a water management district Monday over smelly, slimy green algae blooms that have been polluting the Caloosahatchee River in Southwest Florida.

It was a cloud of dust even the Lone Ranger's faithful steed couldn't kick up.

A Golden Gate Estates animal preserve already in trouble with Collier County code enforcers over zoning issues has been found out of compliance with federal animal welfare laws.

Conservation groups have won the latest round of legal wrangling over off-road vehicle access to the Big Cypress National Preserve.

City attorneys are preparing an appeal and city workers are digging out the reflective tape in the wake of a judge's order tossing out the city's weekend and holiday slow speed zones on Naples Bay.

Marco Island has never seen a breed of snowbird like this one.

The collision comes as the June to July bear breeding season gets underway and bears are on the move, looking for food and mates, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “It was l

Attorney Patrick Neale is one of a growing number of Southwest Florida drivers making the switch from gas-powered cars and trucks to hybrids, or vehicles using two or more distinct power sources to move them.

Lawyers sparred in a Collier County courtroom Thursday over the constitutionality of Naples Bay boat speed zones, but a judge didn't immediately rule in the case.

Two projects to add sand to Marco Island and mainland beaches are still on track despite a revote Tuesday by Collier County commissioners.

A public-private partnership announced Tuesday that it has protected a key piece of Florida panther habitat along the Caloosahatchee River in Glades County after years of being on conservation groups' wish list.

A Naples man has pleaded guilty to shooting and killing a Florida panther in 2009 in Golden Gate Estates, federal prosecutors said today. Todd Alan Benfield, 45, faces a maximum penalty of one year in federal prison, a fine of ...

Organizers of the catch-and-release tournament say the opposition is baseless but have changed some of their rules this year to try to reduce the number of Silver Kings that end up dead. Critics say the changes don't go far enough.

Crabbers say they got pinched by smaller claws, smaller catches and smaller paychecks to carry them through until stone crab season reopens Oct. 15.

A Florida panther kitten hit by a vehicle and rescued from the side of the road has left a Naples veterinary hospital for further rehabilitation.

Rescue groups are playing an increasing role in keeping animals from being euthanized at the shelter, said Amanda Townsend, Domestic Animal Services director. Since fiscal 2006, the number of animals rescued from the Davis Boulevard shelter has gone from 251 ...

Backyard beekeepers are buzzing about a law Gov. Rick Scott signed earlier this month. It voids local government restrictions on where beekeepers can set up shop. Instead, the law gives Florida apiary inspectors the job of writing new rules after ...

Special report: A strong start to 2012 has construction industry leaders hopeful that a housing market recovery is getting rolling in Southwest Florida, but the commercial market is lagging behind, developers and builders say.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network put the Obama administration on notice Monday that they plan to sue if federal agencies don’t make a decision on designating critical habitat for loggerhead sea turtles that nest in ...

For the first time, archaeologists announced Wednesday that they have carbon-dated wood and soil samples to more closely pinpoint the age of a canal that once ran for almost a mile through present-day Old Na

A proposed project to put more sand on Collier County's beaches could be headed for some rough waters as debate heats up over its cost.