Jennifer Reed

Sierra Magazine • October 23 2025

Two Florida Coral Species Were Nearly Wiped Out by a Heat Wave

Researchers have declared that two species of coral off the coast of Florida are “functionally extinct.” The findings, published in the October 23 edition of the research journal Science, reveal that the extreme temperatures during a heat wave in 2023 warmed coastal waters to 100°F, and elevated temperatures lingered for months. According to scientists, the heat streak was unprecedented in its duration, intensity, and extent, all of which threatened an already eroding undersea ecosystem.More tha...

Gulfshore Life • September 3 2025

Sanibel at 50: How the Island That Stopped Time Faces a New Era

Charles Sobczak adjusted the seat on an electric bike, showed me the settings, confirmed I had plenty of water and sent me on my way. 

It was July 2024. I was visiting Charles, a longtime resident and nature writer, to better understand Sanibel’s past as the city approached its 50th anniversary and witness how Hurricane Ian had impacted its present. Charles, like his neighbors, was optimistic about the future—not imagining the brutal storms to come. He insisted I begin by seeing Sanibel the w...

Gulfshore Life • March 10 2025

Staying Power

Lois Thome has spent 32 years earning Southwest Florida's trust—one story, one person at a time

Gulfshore Life • March 10 2025

Family Tides

Part of Fort Myers' old guard, the Kelly clan carries a legacy of spearfishing in Gulf waters

The New York Times • October 29 2024

Stepping Into a Hidden World in the Everglades

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 New York Times • October 11 2024

Agony, and Relief, for Island Residents Who Were Hit Hard 2 Years Ago

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...

The New York Times • September 27 2024

Fort Myers Beach, Devastated by Hurricane Ian, Floods Again

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...

Naples Botanical Garden • July 26 2024

Coastal Cactus's Extinction in US Signals Impact of Rising Seas | Naples Botanical Garden

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...

Gulfshore Life • June 1 2023

Behind the Lens of Famed Everglades Photographer Clyde Butcher

Niki Butcher holds a black-and-white photograph at arm’s length against a swampy landscape. We compare the real-life scene to the image her husband, Clyde, the famed Florida wilderness photographer, had taken with his new infrared camera.

“I’m getting excited about this,” Clyde says. The photo is one of about a dozen he’s shot with the device, which measures a wavelength on the infrared spectrum higher than the human eye can see. In this photograph, the whites are so bright they appear glowin...