No one tells a better Florida story than the people who know this state intimately — either from living here or from engaging with Florida issues in a thoughtful way. As an annual tradition, our has team has compiled a list of stories for you, in no particular order, that highlights the most reflective and important reporting from Florida this year. We salute these hard-working journalists who endeavor to tell the critical stories of our beloved state.
1. People are flocking to Florida. Will there be enough water for them?
By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey & Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist
Why we recommend it: Florida’s wild landscapes are often the drivers behind movements resisting unchecked development in the state, but Sachi Kitajima Mulkey and Ayurella Horn-Muller shine the spotlight on another essential resource – water. In this article for Grist, they lay out how crucial Florida’s groundwater supply is for the state’s residents, and how fragile it has become as Florida’s population continues to boom.
This article pulls in key contextual information like the impacts of climate change and the cultural factors at play (such as an obsession with lush lawns) and, in a very on-the-nose moment, the reporters interview a city councilman from Zephyrhills, a town whose name has become synonymous with bottled water.
“Florida has the luxury of one of the highest-producing aquifers in the world,” they write, “and more time to prepare for a dearth of supply. Still, adaptation will be necessary nearly everywhere as the Earth’s total terrestrial water storage, including groundwater, continues to decline.”
As newcomers flock to affordable housing within commuting distance of Tampa, once-rural areas are also feeling the squeeze. The nearby city of Zephyrhills — known for a namesake bottled water brand — has temporarily banned new developments after it grew too quickly for its water permit.
“Water is the hidden problem that really forced our hand,” said Steven Spina, a member of the Zephyrhills City Council who proposed the restriction. “It is ironic that we’ve been known as the ‘City of Pure Water’ and then we’re in this predicament.”
2. The Last Straw
By Rose Schnabel, WUFT
Why we recommend it: Money in pine straw? WUFT’s Rose Schnabel heads to the forests of north Florida in this three-part series (which is also available in Spanish) to explore the state of the timber industry and what some foresters are doing to recoup costs from an unstable timber market.
Schnabel introduces us to key experts, provides creative infographics, and does a great job capturing what makes pine forests a special part of north Florida culture. She devotes an article to labor considerations in this new industry, including the reliance on underpaid Mexican laborers. She also writes about the ecological impacts of removing decomposing pine needles from the forest floor, writing, poetically, “the rhizosphere feels the loss.”
A hundred years ago, the air of rural Suwannee County smelled of pines, the Florida heat pushing tangy, earthy chemicals called terpenes from their needles.
A deep breath in a pine stand today garners a different scent: chicken poop.
Suwannee County is the state’s largest poultry and egg producer. The launch of Everlizer, a fertilizer company whose raw material is chicken waste, solidified the smell in 2015.
And while pungent, sulfurous chicken coops expand, sweet, woody forestland recedes.
Since 2016, forest land has shrunk by 1.2%, about 300 square miles in Florida: more than four times the area of Washington D.C.
3. Jane Goodall had a message for Floridians: Work together for nature
By Max Chesnes, Tampa Bay Times
Why we recommend it: Dr. Jane Goodall reshaped the world’s understanding of nature through compassion, curiosity, and unwavering hope. Max Chesnes’ reporting holds true to that legacy. His conversations in 2023 and 2024 with Dr. Goodall illuminate an enduring message that feels especially significant for Floridians today: that hope is not passive and that “wonders can be achieved” when communities work together to protect the places and species they cherish.
We recommend this story because it embodies the spirit that continues to inspire our work. A reminder that caring for Florida’s future requires empathy, cooperation, and a steadfast belief in what’s possible.
I asked Goodall: What’s your message to Floridians about maintaining hope — and fostering change — as we witness the plight of these imperiled species?
This was her full response:
“Without hope, people don’t take action, because what’s the point if it’s not going to work? We do need to know about the doom and gloom, because I think the world is in a horrible mess. But at the same time, I’ve met so many incredible people doing so many wonderful projects — proof that nature is amazingly resilient. If we give her a chance, and maybe a helping hand, places we’ve destroyed can once again become beautiful,” she said.
Goodall continued: “I think a very important point is: So many animal species on the very brink of extinction have been given another chance because people got together and decided they’re not going to go on our watch. And that can happen here in Florida. If people really care and don’t give up, wonders can be achieved.”
4. Climate change is fueling a new kind of housing crisis in Florida
By Cameron Glymph, Florida Student News Watch
Why we recommend it: Cameron Glymph wanted to know how folks without secure forms of housing were navigating increasingly severe storms, rising temperatures, and odd weather conditions. She found “AJ,” a man living without shelter in Leon County, and spent some time with him to understand what “regular” feels like to him, and what “now” feels like to him.
Cam’s work illustrates, from the perspective of someone living through it, what Floridians without shelter are navigating during our changing climate. She also dedicated much of her reporting to understanding what threats face AJ and how to report on him with sensitivity and respect. (Cam is an undergraduate student at Florida State University).
Last May, three tornadoes touched down in Tallahassee during the early morning hours. AJ was caught outside sleeping when the chaos started.
“There wasn’t any warning because nobody was expecting it — the rain was the warning,” AJ said. “I could hardly see (as) the wind was tearing down trees.”
Climate change doesn’t just affect people after they lose housing, it also creates conditions that make it harder for people to stay housed. Coleman says that there is usually a surge in people experiencing homelessness after natural disasters occur, mainly coming from people who lost their homes or shelter due to the weather.
“Climate change is a big contributing factor to housing insecurity,” added FSU professor Holmes, who also has studied climate gentrification. “It destabilizes our systems in different ways leading to economic, health, social and housing insecurity.
“Unhoused people might not be considered a segment of the population that needs to be planned for…(city governments are) not really seeing a connection between the place and the people.”
5. Everglades therapy: Veterans combat PTSD by wrangling invasive Burmese pythons
By Uma Raja, South Florida Sun Sentinel
Why we recommend it: Uma Raja spent time with veterans searching for invasive Burmese pythons in the Everglades as a way to cope with their symptoms. Her narrative approach to the story brings the reader in for the ride, and by the end of it, we don’t seem to mind they didn’t catch a single snake. We read about the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder with these veterans while also learning about Everglades restoration and a fight against an invasive species.
Tom Rahill stands in the glow of truck headlights, donning camo boots and thick duck pants, his gray hair pulled into a ponytail underneath his hat. A patch on his sleeve shows an ape proudly holding a python above its head, near a crescent moon.
Darkness envelops the desolate dirt road, the stark silence punctuated only by the rhythmic chirp of crickets and the occasional cry of an owl.
While the rest of Florida slumbers, Rahill wanders into the heart of the Everglades.
6. How Florida’s first failed national park kickstarted its thriving state parks
By Nick Dauk, National Geographic
Why we recommend it: Nick Dauk delves into the little-known history of Highlands Hammock State Park, which, in the 1930s, was under consideration for national park status. Located along the Lake Wales Ridge, Highland Hammock captivated locals and visitors alike, and possessed an ecological uniqueness – but ultimately, the hammock proved too small to convince authorities that it deserved national designation.
Luckily, as Dauk shows, Highland Hammock’s preservation story didn’t end there. The combination of a wealthy benefactor, the emergence of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the creation of the Florida Park Service in 1935 meant Highlands Hammock was perfectly poised to become our first state park. We love a historical deep dive that contextualizes the origins of land development and conservation for contemporary Florida readers, and Dauk’s story reminds us that caring citizens are essential for the protection of Florida’s wild lands.
“The history of Highlands Hammock State Park is more than the origin of the Florida Park Service; it’s a century-old love letter to Florida’s often overlooked inland ecology.”
7. When a hurricane hits, she shows up for those left behind
By Samantha Harrington, Yale Climate Connections
Why we recommend it: Samantha Harrington shines a light on Jasmine McKenzie, a South Floridian and Black transgender woman leading the charge to provide support to transgender Floridians in the wake of hurricanes and natural disasters.
McKenzie is founder and executive director of the McKenzie Project, whose mission is to serve and uplift Black trans, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people – all of whom statistically face higher levels of discrimination and violence as well as greater barriers to resource access than cisgender people. Add a natural disaster into the mix, and those realities are amplified. In telling the story of McKenzie’s Hurricane Response Team, Harrington shows that while transgender Floridians face incredible challenges from natural disasters, they are also the most inventive and creative when it comes to mutual aid, direct disaster relief, and education.
“Right now, a lot of people are so scared to come to Florida, where they think there’s no resources,” McKenzie said. “We’re going to be here with or without this political climate, so we want people to understand that there are organizations in the state of Florida that is doing the work, and there is a trans organization that is doing the work to make sure that trans people have the necessities to thrive and survive before and after any type of natural disaster.”
8. Liquid Assets
By Kylie Williams, WUFT
Why we recommend it: Kylie Williams’ two-part series offers a sharp, deeply reported look at what the Gulf of Mexico is being asked to shoulder at a time of rapid industrial growth. From offshore aquaculture to ultra-deepwater drilling, she unpacks how competing economic interests are reshaping one of Florida’s most vital ecosystems – and the communities that depend on it.
What sets this series apart is Williams’ ability to weave together environmental science, policy decisions, and lived experience while keeping the bigger picture in focus: The Gulf is a generous but finite resource. At a time when it is being asked to give more than ever, this series provides an urgent, nuanced look at the choices facing Florida – and what’s at stake if we get them wrong.
Marine scientists know the Gulf’s resources are overburdened, and the effects of a stressed sea often fall back on its citizens, from commercial fishers struggling to make a living off depleted fisheries to coastal residents trying to shore their homes against rising seas.
But what [Jack E.] Davis calls exploitation, industries call adaptation. Energy companies say they have to drill deeper to keep supplying American energy, while fish farmers argue that offshore aquaculture is a climate-friendly way to feed the planet.
As industries old and new look to stake their claim in the American sea, the Gulf is still giving. But it’s unclear how long we’ll be able to reap its benefits — or at what price.
9. In the midst of Florida’s insurance crisis, what recourse do residents have?
By Amy Green, Inside Climate News
Why we recommend it: Florida’s insurance crisis isn’t breaking news — private insurers have been fleeing the state for years. Many stories focus on how coastal residents can no longer afford to stay in their homes, but Amy Green zooms in on the communities hit hardest and often overlooked: rural towns in Florida’s agricultural heartland. While not coastal, residents there are bearing the financial burden of escalating climate risk. Green captures the culture of the region and gives a human voice to the insurance crisis while also highlighting potential policy approaches that could help mend the situation.
Despite being inland, the region has weathered its share of disasters. Last year Hurricane Milton spawned at least 45 tornadoes across central and south Florida, including one that hurled the trailer shared by Charlie Dahlonega and her husband, John Alberigi, through the air.
The couple was home at the time, and both were thrown from the trailer. Dahlonega suffered a skull fracture, and Alberigi, who has dementia, sustained multiple injuries to his arm and torso, including broken ribs. Their home was completely destroyed, and they did not have insurance because it was too expensive. Since then they have received some federal assistance, and community help has sustained them. Eventually Dahlonega plans to move out of the area with her husband.
“They make it impossible for some of us to afford insurance,” said Dahlonega, 70, a retired paralegal. “I just feel like I’m less cared for. It’s kind of like when your house is robbed. If you’re someone of note you get more attention from the police department. You just feel like you’ve been written off because you don’t have a big bank account.”
10. When Ice Melts
By Brittney J. Miller, Florida Trend
Why we recommend it: When we think of Florida stories, we certainly don’t think of the arctic tundra, where giant glaciers and sub-freezing temperatures characterize a white-and-light-blue landscape. But Florida Trend’s Brittney J. Miller managed to write a Florida story about just that, traveling to Greenland on assignment for a story about researchers from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale who are trying “to understand, plan, and adapt for a new era of sea level rise,” Miller writes.
Through the Rising Seas Institute, scientists are on a mission to lead sea-level rise education in a new direction — one that turns away from harmful decades of climate change denialism and instead toward a more proactive future for Florida’s fragile coastline.
What stands out about this story is its way of connecting the dots within critical climate research: How takeaways from research in one place can yield climate clues in another. Meanwhile, Miller tackles overdue discussions about how the political divide has stalled these conversations — particularly in Florida — for years. Drawing on field reporting, scientific research, environmental history, and detailed interviews with the staff and Inuit locals who have seen Greenland change firsthand, Miller vividly tells the story of an impassioned team working to fortify our state’s coastline with science before the sea swallows the places we call home.
A few hours by boat north of the Jakobshavn Glacier, the Eqi Glacier stands sentry. Stay for 20 minutes, and it’s easy to see why it’s also known as the calving glacier.
Its two-plus-mile-wide face is one of the most active calving sites in Greenland. The deep, echoing rumbles of ancient ice severing into icebergs rival even the fiercest Florida thunderstorms. Watching the chunks crash into the water, sending mighty swells across the fjord, can’t compare to the typical waves lapping the Florida coast. Several boats drift nearby, including one holding the first cohort of NSU’s Rising Seas Institute expeditions.
The scene is ethereal but, admittedly, a bit frightening — like some divine rapture roiling from the glacier in snippets. That’s the whole point of the trip: witnessing the impacts of climate change firsthand and, more importantly, tying those impacts to our home state.
11. To Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe, the lands around Alligator Alcatraz are sacred, pythons and all
By Amy Green, Inside Climate News
Why we recommend it: Florida may have been spared a hurricane this year, but the most striking crisis to hit Florida in 2025 was the construction of Alligator Alcatraz: a migrant detention facility in the heart of the Everglades designed to spark fear, separate families, and further President Trump’s overtly prejudiced approach to immigration control.
Many journalists covered the developments, from breaking news — such as the dedicated team at the Miami Herald — to those who wrote about the abomination from a more national perspective in outlets such as the New Yorker and New York Magazine. But in this well-researched feature for Inside Climate News, Green brings a local reporting perspective that marries the detention facility’s environmental, cultural and social harms all in one story — and that’s what makes it stand out.
Although the facility is still operational, stories such as Green’s have helped fuel the fight against it as protestors continue to stalk the facility’s entrance despite ongoing police presence. By uplifting the voices of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, the longtime locals who have lived in the Everglades for thousands of years, including activist Betty Osceola, Green details the historical and cultural context for the sacred place they call home. This much-needed accountability story about a blatant human-rights violation isn’t just thorough environmental-justice storytelling; it’s an ode to the Everglades and its fiercest protectors.
Environmental stories are not separate from the stark social, cultural, and health issues we face as a nation under increased executive attack. In this spirit — and in the spirit of what The Marjorie stands for as an environmental justice-focused nonprofit media outlet — we applaud Green in her holistic approach to this complex and politically charged issue.
“Most of our tribe practices the traditional culture, and so that relies heavily on the Everglades and the national preserve. That’s where we go to gather our medicines. That’s where we lay people to rest, and that’s where we have our ceremonies out there. So for us it’s a place that really just brings us together, and it’s a part of who we are,” said Talbert Cypress, the tribe’s elected chairman
12. Fears over hurricane forecasting as scientists are laid off at NOAA’s Virginia Key offices
By Jenny Staletovich, WLRN
Why we recommend it: When a hurricane is on the horizon, many Floridians stay glued to their screens for days, tracking the cone of uncertainty — but we may not always think about the depth of research that makes those forecasts possible.
In this piece, Jenny Staletovich explains how massive layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could affect the accuracy of storm predictions, especially as hurricanes intensify with climate change. We especially appreciate that Staletovich highlights a scientist who grew up in Florida and chose a NOAA career after living through so many storms — a reminder that this work is personal and driven by purpose for many of those who were let go.
“A couple of weeks went by and we were thinking we might be spared,” said Andy Hazelton, a meteorologist who was among those fired. “NOAA put in some exemptions because of public safety, but it seems those were not honored at my level.”
Hazelton, who has four young kids, said working for NOAA had been a lifelong goal. He flew repeated missions aboard NOAA’s hurricane hunter planes and focused his research on one of the most pressing concerns: hurricanes that intensify suddenly, giving little warning to the public and emergency managers.
“I grew up in Lakeland and Plant City and experienced a lot of hurricanes, so doing modeling and working for NOAA was really a dream,” he said.
Cover photo by Jason Matthew Walker
