Tom Bayles on Muck Rack

Tom Bayles

Verified
Fort Myers
As seen in: WGCU Public Media, NPR, Health News Florida, WUSF Public Media, WLRN-FM (Miami, FL), WUSF-FM (Tampa, FL), WVXU-FM (Cincinnati, OH), WAMU-FM (Washington, D.C.), KNPR-FM (Las Vegas, NV), WESA-FM (Pittsburgh, PA), New Hampshire Public Radio and
Covers:  Environment, Climate Change, Global Warming, Everglades, Invasive Species, Beach Renourishment, Nature, Animals, Wildfires, Coastal Systems, Florida, Development, Hurricanes, Oceans, Water, Ecocsystem
Doesn't Cover: Schools, Religion, Business, Promotions, Public Relations, Sports, Travel, Entertainment, Ribbon Cuttings, Health, Cops, Courts, Advocacy, Politics
Tom Bayles, Senior Digital Environmental Reporter, WCGU Public Media 90.1 FM - NPR and PBS for Southwest Florida

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Tom Bayles’s Biography

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I cover all aspects of the environment for WGCU Public Media, NPR & PBS for Southwest Florida. I write happy brights to deep-dive enterprise stories and produce same as broadcast versions for NPR-member websites and our sister NPR radio stations throughout Florida after first publishing on WGCU.org and broadcasting on WGCU FM 90.1 FM. Also am on camera for PBS projects occasionally.
Climate change, development issues in Southwest Florida, the Everglades restoration, invasive species, and water …

Tom Bayles’s Journalist Portfolio

Tom Bayles - Environmental Reporter - WGCU Public Media | LinkedIn

Tom Bayles - Environmental Reporter - WGCU Public Media | LinkedIn

Having a blast as the environmental reporter with WGCU Public Media, PBS & NPR for Southwest Florida ... the …

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Special report: The state of citrus

Special report: The state of citrus

America's lean 1930s taught a young Joe L. Davis a valuable lesson, one that would chart the course of his lo…

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Sand Storm

Sand Storm

Slip on a pair of swim goggles, duck underwater at Big Pass, and you'll see what appears to be a barren plane…

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The beach builders

The beach builders

David Pearce knew the dangers of beach rebuilding, that sand dredges are hot, slippery and loud; that deckhan…

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Articles

This chick returns to Sanibel Causeway for first time in decades; other species find site a nest haven

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By Tom Bayles Verified
| WUSF-FM (Tampa, FL) Verified
The last time a black skimmer chick hatched on Sanibel Causeway it was roughly the same year the Hubble Space Telescope was sent into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. It took all that time, from the early 1990s until late spring of this year, to happen again. The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation's volunteer shorebird team found the nest and photographed a chick poking out from under the black-and-white bird with the distinctive orange beak.
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This chick returns to Sanibel Causeway for first time in decades; other species find site a nest haven

|
By Tom Bayles Verified
| WGCU Public Media Verified
The last time a black skimmer chick hatched on Sanibel Causeway it was roughly the same year the Hubble Space Telescope was sent into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. It took all that time, from the early 1990s until late spring of this year, to happen again. The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s volunteer shorebird team found the nest and photographed a chick poking out from under the black-and-white bird with the distinctive orange beak.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Detainees at Alligator Alcatraz now gone, but cleanup and repair expected to top $40 million

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By Tom Bayles Verified
| WLRN-FM (Miami, FL) Verified
Despite news that the last detainee is gone from the immigration detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, the environmental groups that sued to shut it down gathered online Wednesday to make it known that they are nowhere near done. The environmental groups whose lawsuits appeared to hasten the shuttering of the immigration center said Florida and the federal governments still have a lot of work to do to repair extensive environmental damage at the site.
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

Weekly Newspaper editor

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Yep.

How is social media changing news?

It has blurred the line between a professional, ethical, journalist and an influencer with a cell phone.

Awards

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Suncoast Regional Emmy – National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

2025 - Documentary

On-air segment contribution to the “After Ian” team documentary effort

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Gold Medal For Public Service - Florida Society of Newspaper Editors

2001 - Investigative Journalism

"The Beach Builders" is a multi-part series after a yearlong investigation into the annual rush to restock the nation's shores with sand, which is an annual multimillion-dollar exercise in futility where lives are lost to greed and wholesale environmental damage is left at the shoreline due to purposeful ignorance

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Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida

2002 - Environmental

For body of work.

Society of Professional Journalists Award

2023 - Blog Writing

First place for a weekly column on anything even closely related to water quality inshore or offshore of Southwest Florida.

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Four-time Pulitzer Prize Entrant

Investigative, Feature, Breaking News, Public Service

In 2001, Investigative Reporting; In 2002, Feature Writing; In 2005, Breaking News; In 2011, Public Service

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Public Media Journalists Association

2023 - Radio feature

For a profile of a retired gentleman in a Fort Myers mobile home community who lived through a tornado at the beginning of the year and then Hurricane Ian in September and still kept a very positive outlook on life.

Public Media Journalists Association

2023 - Radio feature

For a profile of a retired gentleman in a Fort Myers mobile home community who lived through a tornado at the beginning of the year and then Hurricane Ian in September yet talked of his renewed passion for life as he collected the few things he had left, then drove out of the mobile home park for the last time.

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Society of Professional Journalists Award

2023 - Environmental reporting, radio and broadcast

For the "Tom Bayles Collection," a sample of some of my favorite reporting throughout the year. I happily came in third behind two colleagues on my same beat but in different parts of Florida, both who also work in public media at the NPR-affiliate stations in Tampa and Miami.

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Five-time winner of The New York Times Chairman's Award

Various

Awarded for the best journalism produced during the previous month at any of the more than 20 regional newspapers then-owned by The New York Times Co. One award was for "The Beach Builders," which is linked below to an IRE-commissioned how-we-did-it article.

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Gold Charlie Award

2016 - Magazine Writing

First Place• The top statewide magazine long-form feature writing honor for "Sand Storm" in Sarasota Magazine, an in-depth look into the controversy over using pristine beach sand contained in a huge shoal under Sarasota County's Big Pass for a beach renourishment on Lido Key, where multi-million-dollar condos and resorts are poised to fall into the ocean without the replanted sand. Taking the shoal sand, however, stokes the concerns of residents and business owners on Siesta Key to the south, who worry the natural flow of silky white sand to its world-famous beaches might be interrupted by the sand pumping effort endorsed by the federal government.

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