May 19, 2020
At least seven homes were lost in a brush fire in southwest Florida, and many of the victims say they escaped with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. The 8,663-acre wildfire fire in Collier County continued to burn …
January 31, 2019
It could take a decade or more for Florida’s timber industry to recover from Hurricane Michael’s devastation, and the countless downed trees pose an immediate wildfire threat, Florida Forest Service Director Jim Karels told a Senate committee last week. Karels …
January 2, 2019
Strewn in gnarled piles from Florida’s Gulf Coast up through South Georgia, the livelihood of timber farmers is on the ground. And, after the ravaging buzz saw of Hurricane Michael in early October, it will be a while until they …
October 22, 2018
Trees brought down by Hurricane Michael’s ferocious winds took a heavy toll on life, property and the timber industry in the heavily forested Florida Panhandle, where $1.3 billion in timber was lost, authorities said Friday. Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam …
April 19, 2017
At least 126,000 acres have burned in wildfires across Florida since January, surpassing the five-year average of acreage burned in a typical year, officials said. Florida’s fire season peaks this month, during the driest part of the year in the …
March 24, 2017
Florida Forest Service officials say a 400-acre brush fire has forced the evacuation of a neighborhood and threatened or burned up to 15 homes. Nassau County Emergency Management Director Billy Estop ordered residents of the neighborhood near the Georgia line …
August 25, 2014
Florida state officials say they’ve overseen a record number of prescribed burns over the past year. The Florida Forest Service reported prescribed fires covering more than 2.5 million acres. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services says that’s one …