Reporter

Bill Kearney

Bill Kearney is a senior editor and reporter covering Florida’s bountiful environmental, outdoor and travel topics. Previously, he was the editor of American Way magazine, and has spearheaded environmental, travel and lifestyle content for nearly two decades. An avid outdoorsman, he spends as much time as possible exploring nature in Florida.

Franklin Adams, 87, in the Big Cypress near Alligator Alcatraz at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on Tamiami Trail E, Ochopee, on Saturday, July 12, 2025. Adams opposed the building of a jetport along with famed environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Before it was Alligator Alcatraz, this airstrip sparked fury and changed America’s landscape

July 16, 2025 at 9:39 a.m.

Alligator Alcatraz has triggered pride in the MAGA world, and fury in an unlikely bipartisan mix of South Floridians. Decades ago, bipartisan outrage erupted in a fight over a jetport...

A large python in Picayune Strand State Forest outside of Naples. (Bill Kearney for the South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Python-killer mystery: What animal was fierce enough to take down this massive snake?

May 20, 2025 at 11:21 a.m.

Biologists tracking a big python found it dead, chewed up and buried. They launched into a CSI-like investigation that revealed a surprising killer.

Large patches of sargassum seaweed are seen on the jetty beach at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park in Dania Beach on Monday, April 28, 2025. The season for seaweed typically begins in May and peaks in June and July. The Optical Oceanography Lab at the University of South Florida is predicting a major seaweed season, with large swaths of the substance already present in the tropical Atlantic. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Record-breaking amounts of seaweed drifting toward Florida, experts say

May 9, 2025 at 10:40 a.m.

The stinky sargassum is currently traveling across the Atlantic and Caribbean.

This map shows sea surface temperature probabilities for July, 2025. The white areas denote normal temperatures while the hotter temperatures denote the probability of
above-normal temperatures. (Courtesy European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts)

Forecasters call for ‘near-average’ Atlantic hurricane season through September

March 6, 2025 at 9:32 a.m.

The upcoming Atlantic hurricane season could stay "near-average" through September for the U.S., according to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

This infrared satellite image shows the outer bands of Hurricane Milton already hitting Florida’s west coast on Wednesday morning. (NOAA/GOES-East)

Hurricane Milton, slightly weakened but still powerful, moves within 100 miles of Florida landfall

October 9, 2024 at 1:46 p.m.

Storm is a Category 4 with winds of 145 mph.

Otto, a German wirehaired pointer, aboard his owner, Mike Kimmel’s boat at they prepare to head into the Everglades to catch invasive Burmese pythons. (Scott Luxor/Contributor)

Dog vs. python: A night in the swamp with the handsomest snake hunter in Florida

August 19, 2024 at 11:27 a.m.

We tag — or rather crawl — along for a night in the Everglades as Otto uses his intense prey drive and incredible sense of smell to sniff out Burmese...

Here’s the forecast map for Hurricane Beryl as of 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 2, 2024.

Deadly Hurricane Beryl brings storm surge, flash flooding to Jamaica as Category 4 storm

July 3, 2024 at 11:14 a.m.

Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are bracing for deadly Hurricane Beryl, which remained a Category 4 storm Wednesday with 140 mph winds. Mexico's Yucatan coast, the northeast coast of Mexico...

Here’s the forecast map for Hurricane Beryl as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (Handout/National Hurricane Center/TNS)

Hurricane Beryl explodes into dangerous Category 5 storm on path toward Jamaica and Cancun

July 2, 2024 at 10:42 a.m.

Hurricane Beryl continued to rapidly intensify on Tuesday morning, reaching a powerful Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

A satellite image of Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall in the Panhandle region of Florida on August 30, 2023 as a Category 3 storm. (Courtesy NOAA)

NOAA predicts ‘highest-ever’ number of named storms in 2024 preseason forecast

May 23, 2024 at 11:59 a.m.

Forecasters say that the record-warm water temperatures that now cover much of the Atlantic Ocean will continue into peak hurricane season from August to October.

Bottlenose dolphins leap out of the water

New revelations in the mystery of the dolphin with the bird flu

May 7, 2024 at 11:36 a.m.

A new paper offers clues as to how the dolphin may have contracted the virus, and if other mammals in Florida waters are at risk.

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