What is happening to Florida's "protected" wetlands?
"This is an exhaustive, timely, and devastating account of the destruction of Florida's wetlands, and the disgraceful collusion of government at all levels. It's an important book that should be read by every voter, every taxpayer, every parent, every Floridian who cares about saving what's left of this precious place."--Carl Hiaasen
"Pittman and Waite pulled the lid off federal and state wetlands regulation in Florida and peered deep into the cauldron of 'mitigation,' 'no net loss,' 'banking,' and the rest of the regulatory stew. For anyone interested in wetlands generally, and in Florida environmental issues in particular, this is an eye-opening, must-read book."--J. B. Ruhl
Since 1990, every president has pledged to protect wetlands, and Florida possesses more than any state except Alaska. And yet, since that time Florida has lost more than 84,000 acres of wetlands that help replenish the water supply and protect against flooding.
How and why the state’s wetlands are continuing to disappear is the subject of Paving Paradise. Journalists Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite spent nearly four years investigating the political expedience, corruption, and negligence on the part of federal and state agencies that led to a failure to enforce regulations on developers. They traveled throughout the state, interviewed hundreds of people, dug through thousands of documents, and analyzed satellite imagery to identify former wetlands that were now houses, stores, and parking lots.
The result was an award-winning series, "Vanishing Wetlands," of more than twenty stories in the St. Petersburg Times, exposing the unseen environmental consequences of rampant sprawl. Expanding their work into book form in the tradition of Michael Grunwald's The Swamp, Pittman and Waite explain how wetland protection has become a taxpayer-funded program that creates the illusion of environmental protection while doing little to stem the tide of destruction.

Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss (Florida History and Culture)

Business & Money

Pittman, Craig

Waite, Matthew

Economics

University Press of Florida

Why is the manatee just as imperiled today as it was 40 years ago?
"The best available, most factual account of the decades-long struggle to protect the Florida manatee, skillfully told by a veteran journalist who has followed the story closely. I’ve been involved in this controversy for over 30 years, and I learned countless things about it that I never knew!"--Daryl Domning, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
"The Florida legislature gave the manatee its own license plate, and Jimmy Buffet sang poetic lyrics about the iconic creature, but Craig Pittman offers a whole new perspective--the manatee as battleground. With a cast of characters including environmentalists and biologists, developers and boaters, lawyers and lobbyists, politicians and shady citizens, Manatee Insanity is a colorful work of non-fiction."--Keith Rizzardi, South Florida Water Management District
Loveable or loathed? Poster child for conservation efforts or impediment to development? Nuisance or in need of protection? For the past two decades, the quiet manatee has been a flash point of frequent environmental debates.
Included on the very first endangered species list issued in 1967, the docile creatures have stirred curiosity and passions for more than a hundred years. They are Florida's most famous endangered species, as well as its most controversial. Manatees appear on hundreds of license plates, attract hordes of tourists, and expose the uneasy relationships between science and the law and between freedom and responsibility like no other animal.
As passions have flared and resentments have grown, the battle over manatee protection has evolved into a war, and no reporter has followed the story more closely than Craig Pittman. He’s flown with scientists trying to count manatees from overhead. He’s been on the water with the leader of the biggest pro-boater group. He's observed biologists dissecting the animals and politicians discussing their fate.
Manatee Insanity provides the first in-depth history of the attempts to provide legal protection for the manatee. Along the way, Pittman takes a close look at the major and minor players in the dispute, from Jacques-Yves Cousteau to Jeb Bush, from Jimmy Buffett to O. J. Simpson, from a popular children's book author to a federal lawman who dressed in a gorilla suit for the ultimate undercover assignment.
A volume in the Florida History and Culture Series, edited by Raymond Arsenault and Gary R. Mormino

Manatee Insanity: Inside the War over Florida's Most Famous Endangered Species

History

Americas

“Draws readers into its difficult subject by resorting to the dirtiest trick in the journalist’s bag of tricks: great storytelling.”—Creative Loafing
“Uncovers what ought to rank among Florida’s most notorious development scandals—and that’s something in a state infamous for swampland scams and subprime sprawl. . . . An infuriating, all-too-familiar tale of how powerful developers, shrewd lobbyists, and callow politicians shape public policy for private profit.”—Miami Herald
“This is an exhaustive, timely, and devastating account of the destruction of Florida’s wetlands, and the disgraceful collusion of government at all levels. It’s an important book that should be read by every voter, every taxpayer, every parent, every Floridian who cares about saving what’s left of this precious place.”—Carl Hiaasen
Florida possesses more wetlands than any other state except Alaska, yet since 1990 more than 84,000 acres have been lost to development—despite presidential pledges to protect them. In this hard-hitting book, St. Petersburg Times investigative journalists Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite explain how taxpayers who think they’re paying for wetland protection have been stuck with a program that creates the illusion of environmental protection while doing little to stem the tide of destruction. ?A potent combination of groundbreaking historical research and no-holds-barred reporting, this book portrays a landscape that has been compromised by greed, fear, and incompetence.

Some people will do anything for beauty or fame
“FANTASTIC. If I did not know most of the main players I would have thought the author had a vivid and twisted imagination..”—Paul Martin Brown, author of Wild Orchids of Florida
“A fascinating true story of obsession, greed, and lust for the unobtainable. Reminds me a great deal of The Maltese Falcon. This rare flower is definitely the stuff that dreams are made of.”—Ace Atkins, author of Devil's Garden and Infamous
“Pittman has captured the extreme competition, unique characters, and general insanity that often typify the orchid world. The Scent of Scandal exemplifies how passion and profit can overrule common sense and the law.”—Scott Steward, former associate editor, North American Native Orchid Journal
Every year more than 100,000 people visit Sarasota’s Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, in large part to see its vast orchid collection, one of the most magnificent in the world. But the most famous orchid in Selby’s history—the one hailed as the most significant find in a century—isn't on display. It's the one that led to search warrants, a grand jury investigation, and headlines around the country. Discovered in Peru in 2002, the Phragmipedium kovachii quickly became the most sought-after orchid in the world. Prices soared to $10,000 on the black market and otherwise rational people bent rules and broke laws in their obsessive quest to possess it. Award-winning journalist Craig Pittman covered this fascinating story, as it happened, for the St. Petersburg Times, Florida’s largest newspaper. In this enthralling account, he unravels the tangled web of smugglers, scientists, and federal investigators to reveal who the real criminals were in this sordid affair. He also shines a spotlight on flaws in the international treaties governing trade in endangered wildlife—treaties that often protect individual plants and animals in shipping but do little to halt the destruction of whole colonies in the wild. With candid interviews from nearly everyone involved in the case, The Scent of Scandal unspools like a riveting mystery novel, stranger than anything in Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief or the film Adaptation. Pittman shows how some people can become so obsessed—with beauty, with profit, with fame, with the desire to own a rare flower—that even the possibility of going to prison will not deter their risking everything. Craig Pittman writes about environmental issues for the St. Petersburg Times. He is the coauthor of Paving Paradise: Florida’s Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss and author of Manatee Insanity: Inside the War over Florida’s Most Famous Endangered Species.

The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World's Most Beautiful Orchid (Florida History and Culture)

The State You're In: Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife

Product Description 
Jump into the wacky, wild world of Florida 
For more than 30 years, investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author Craig Pittman has chronicled the wildest stories Florida has to offer. Featuring a selection of columns that have appeared in the Tampa Bay Times and other outlets throughout Pittman’s career, this book highlights just how strange and wonderful Florida can be. 
With a folksy style, an eye for the absurd, and a passion for the history and environment of his home state, Pittman describes some of Florida’s oddest wildlife as well as its quirkiest people. The State You’re In includes a love story involving the most tattooed woman in the world, a deep dive into the state’s professional mermaid industry, and an investigation of a battle between residents of a nudist resort and the U.S. Postal Service. Pittman introduces readers to a who’s who of Florida crime fiction, a what’s what of exotic animals, and an array of beloved places he’s seen change rapidly in his lifetime. 
Many of these stories are funny, some are serious, and several offer rare insights into the heart of the Sunshine State. For Pittman, Florida is both inspiring and dangerous―an “evolutionary test” for those who live in it. Together these pieces paint a complex picture of a fascinating state longing for an identity beyond palm trees and punchlines. 
 Review 
“These stories . . . focus on people, a cross section of Floridians closely observed and written about with humor and empathy. . . . The State You’re In is a smart, entertaining and sometimes surprising look at a place that can make our blood boil one minute and enchant us the next.”—Tampa Bay Times\n“A variety of diverse, interesting Sunshine State tales. . . . [Pittman] will make you laugh with some stories and leave you wondering about how such a thing could happen in others.”—Tampa Bay Magazine 
“[A] romp of an anthology. . . . A quirky, considered meditation of Florida’s absurdities, from its wildlife to its people.”— 
Flamingo 
 Review 
“Spanning thirty years of extraordinary reporting, The State You’re In is a celebration of Florida and its most versatile writer―pee-your-pants funny in one chapter and utterly humane in the next. Craig Pittman is Florida’s own Mark Twain.”―Cynthia Barnett, author of Mirage; Blue Revolution; and Rain: A Natural and Cultural History 
“The State You’re In is pure Pittman, who has earned his reputation as one of the most astute observers of Florida. The book is a combination love story and divorce trial of a writer cursing the state he loved but realizing the magic and romance that first captivated him.”―Gary R. Mormino, author of Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida 
“Pittman has alligator-wrestled some of Florida’s wackiest occurrences and managed to pin them to the page with his usual wit, charm, and knack for making the outlandish seem like just another day in the sunshine. There truly is no state like Florida, and no one writes about Florida like Craig Pittman.”―Steph Post, author of Holding Smoke 
“From panthers to the BP oil spill, Pittman has covered a breathtaking range of stories in his long career. This collection portrays the weird and the wild, the sad and the surprising, with an unflinching yet loving touch. Pittman humanizes Florida, explains it, even translates it, for those who both love and loathe the state.”―Tara Lush, author of Grounds for Murder 
“Pittman is that rare breed of writer who not only makes us laugh but also makes us think. His storytelling often highlights the shady side of the Sunshine State, but it is clearly informed by a deep appreciation for Florida’s history and culture.”―Janine Farver, former executive director, Florida Humanities Council 
 About the Author 
Craig Pittman is a native Floridian and an award-winning journalist. He wrote for the 
Tampa Bay Times for 30 years and now writes for the 
Florida Phoenix. He is the author of

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

The quiet manatee has long been a flash point of frequent environmental debates. It is Florida's most famous endangered species, as well as its most controversial. Manatees appear on hundreds of license plates, attract hordes of tourists, and expose the uneasy relationships between science and the law and between freedom and responsibility like no other animal. &#65279; As passions have flared and resentments have grown, the battle over manatee protection has evolved into a war, and no reporter has followed the story more closely than Craig Pittman, the first environmental writer to explore the complex history, culture, and science of the controversies and concerns surrounding this remarkable creature. &#65279; With an abiding interest in the uncertain fate of this unique species, Manatee Insanity&nbsp;provides the first in-depth history of the attempts to provide legal protection for the manatee. Pittman follows Florida's gentle giants through time and space, detailing interactions with a variety of human actors, from Jacques-Yves Cousteau to Jeb Bush to Jimmy Buffett, from a popular children's book author to a federal lawman who dressed in a gorilla suit for the ultimate undercover assignment.

Manatee Insanity: Inside the War over Florida's Most Famous Endangered Species (Florida History and Culture)

Cat Tale Lib/E: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Hanover Square Press

A New York Times Bestseller
"Painstakingly reported and researched...compulsively readable."―The New York Times "An extraordinary catalog of 'weird Florida'...the definitive guide."―The Los Angeles Times Florida. That name. That combination of sounds. Three simple syllables packing mixed messages. To some people, it’s a paradise. To others, it’s a punch line. As award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Craig Pittman shows, it's both of these and, more important, it’s a Petri dish, producing trends that end up influencing the rest of the country. Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country embraces those contradictions and shows how they fit together to make this the most interesting state. 
 Without Florida there would be no NASCAR, no Bettie Page pinups, no Glenn Beck radio rants, no USA Today, no “Stand Your Ground,” . . . you get the idea.
 To outsiders, Florida seems baffling. It’s a state where the voters went for Barack Obama twice, yet elected a Tea Party candidate as governor. Florida is touted as a carefree paradise, yet it’s also known for its perils-alligators, sinkholes, pythons, hurricanes, and sharks, to name a few. It attracts 90 million visitors a year, some drawn by its impressive natural beauty, others bewitched by its manmade fantasies.
 Florida couldn’t be Florida without that sense of the unpredictable, unexpected, and unusual lurking behind every palm tree. But there is far more to Florida than its sideshow freakiness. Oh, Florida! explains how Florida secretly, subtly influences all the other states in the Union, both for good and for ill. Florida is wild and weird―and that’s okay!

Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country

St.Martin's Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pittman, Craig. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pittman, Craig

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pittman, Craig. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss (Florida History and Culture)

Manatee Insanity: Inside the War over Florida's Most Famous Endangered Species

Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss (Florida History and Culture)

The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World's Most Beautiful Orchid (Florida History and Culture)

The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World's Most Beautiful Orchid (Florida History and Culture)

The State You're In: Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife

Manatee Insanity: Inside the War over Florida's Most Famous Endangered Species (Florida History and Culture)

The State You're In: Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife

Cat Tale Lib/E: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther

Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country