Florida aquifer levels remain low.
So far, Brevard County has escaped the drought conditions plaguing other Central Florida counties. And the recent summer rains haven’t helped them much.
Rainfall totals are especially low in Lake and Marion counties, where an extreme water shortage declared by the St. Johns River Water Management District. Clay Coarsey heads up the district’s water supply planning division:
“Even though you might see rain happening, that rain is not necessarily effectively recharging the aquifer, where the vast majority of the people get the water that we use in the state of Florida.”
District-wide, total July rains fell about an inch and a half below average levels. Across the 18 counties covered by the district, Brevard and Volusia are the only two where monthly rain totals improved slightly in July. But more inland rains are necessary for recharging the aquifer.
Florida’s emergency chief resigns.
Florida is entering the most active weeks of hurricane season, without an emergency manager at the helm of the state’s disaster prep and recovery division. Kevin Guthrie, the director of the state’s emergency management division since 2021, announced he was joining Jay Collins as his running mate in an ultimately failed bid for the Republican nomination for governor. Then news came that Guthrie had resigned. Local emergency managers were shocked by Guthrie's abrupt departure at the peak of hurricane season. Gov. Ron DeSantis accepted the resignation, saying he didn’t think politics and emergency management mixed. Guthrie said he “never imagined” that he would lose his job for being added to Collins’ ticket. The Department of Transportation secretary, Jared Perdue, was appointed as the interim director.
Embry-Riddle plans flight school in national forest.
The Ocala National Forest is the largest national forest east of the Mississippi. It attracts more than half a million visitors each year, and it’s home to threatened species. All of that may be threatened by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s plan to expand a small, private airport into a pilot training facility. That will require chopping down nearly 40 acres of trees within the federal preserve, and building a 10,000-square-foot aircraft hangar. Some neighbors are alarmed, but the federal government has exempted the project from environmental regulations.
The US Forest Service said in April it was studying Embry-Riddle’s plan and would decide once all environmental and regulatory reviews were complete. But last month the Forest Service decided it didn’t need any reviews, but the permit is on administrative hold right now.
Pollinator census is tomorrow.
What if protecting pollinators were as easy as spending 15 minutes watching a patch of flowers? That’s what you can do tomorrow during the Great Southeast Pollinator Census. WFIT’s Terri Wright tells how you can help.
Pollinators are vital to our food supply, contributing to about 35% of global crops. But populations of bees, monarch butterflies and other pollinators have declined for decades because of threats including pesticides and habitat loss.
Florida joins thousands of volunteers across 5 states in the survey. Last year, 5,122 counts were submitted, almost double the counts in 2024, and 59 of 67 Florida counties participated. Also, 183 new sustainable pollinator habitats were planted in 2025 after the census.
Participation is simple: choose a flowering plant, record it on the official counting sheet, observe it for 15 minutes, and record the bees, butterflies, beetles, and other pollinators that visit the blooms.
Outro: Visit UF/IFAS site for all the information you need for tomorrow’s census.
