1. Florida continues to promote unfettered growth without paying attention to the water demands of all those new people and businesses. 2. Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Vero Beach was the first site in a program that now features nearly 600 locations. Paul Tritiak was the former refuge manager at Pelican Island and tells us how the refuge came to be.
Photo: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Craig Pittman is the award-winning author of Oh, Florida!: How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country, The Scent of Scandal, Cat Tale, Manatee Insanity and The State You’re In, and co-author of Paving Paradise. Born in Pensacola, he graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.” Since then he has covered a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature.