Manatee Insanity

by Craig Pittman
Manatee Insanity
Author: Craig Pittman
Publisher: Florida History and Culture
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2022-07-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780813068848
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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.  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.  With an abiding interest in the uncertain fate of this unique species, Manatee Insanity 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

by Craig Pittman
Manatee Insanity
Author: Craig Pittman
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 643
Release: 2010-05-09
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0813047072
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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.  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.  With an abiding interest in the uncertain fate of this unique species, Manatee Insanity 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.

The Florida Manatee

by Roger L. Reep
The Florida Manatee
Author: Roger L. Reep
Publisher:
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780813066820
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The Florida Manatee is an engaging, accessible introduction to manatee biology from two scientists who have been at the forefront of manatee research for over three decades.

Oh, Florida!

by Craig Pittman
Oh, Florida!
Author: Craig Pittman
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2016-07-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1250071208
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A fun- and fact-filled investigation into why the Sunshine State is the weirdest but also the most influential state in the Union.

Face to Face with Manatees

by Brian Skerry
Face to Face with Manatees
Author: Brian Skerry
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2010
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1426306172
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Introduces readers to tghe life cycle, behaviors, and the natural habitats of manatees living off Florida's southern coast and describes the conservations efforts performed to protect tyhe species.

Cat Tale

by Craig Pittman
Cat Tale
Author: Craig Pittman
Publisher: Harlequin
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2020-01-21
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1488098719
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A Garden & Gun Best Book of 2020 “Witty and passionate.” —Lauren Groff “Craig Pittman has a remarkable talent for telling stories set in the Sunshine State that never fail to fascinate and entertain.”—Gilbert King “The definitive book on one of America’s least understood apex predators. The story of how Florida’s panthers were saved from extinction is one that both deserves and needs to be told.” —Dane Huckelbridge The captivating tale of the Florida panther, its survival and rescue from extinction With novelistic detail and an eye for the absurd, Craig Pittman recounts the extraordinary story of the people who brought the panther back from the brink of extinction, the ones who nearly pushed the species over the edge, and the cats that were caught in the middle. This being Florida, there's more than a little weirdness, too. An engrossing narrative of wry humor, sharp writing and exhaustive reportage, Cat Tale shows what it takes to bring one species back and what unexpected costs such a decision brings.

Florida Manatees

by John Elliott Reynolds
Florida Manatees
Author: John Elliott Reynolds
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2017-04-25
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1421421917
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A photographic journey into the secret world of Florida’s beloved manatee. Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRL Manatees, the gentle giants of Florida's lagoons and coastal habitats, can bring a smile to the face of anybody lucky enough to spy one. As manatees dip and roll through the water, crowds gather to watch them feed on aquatic vegetation. Whether they are congregating by the hundreds or resting or feeding alone, viewing these sea cows can provide anyone interested in nature with hours of tranquil pleasure. Having survived for eons, today's manatees are now under constant threat due to our rapidly swelling human population. Their habitats are often devastated by development and pollution. The slow-moving manatees also live at the mercy of chance, for they occupy waters filled with fast-moving boats powered by razor-sharp propellers—a new form of predator from which they have no protection. Boat speed limits have been put in place to protect manatees, but there is a constant push to lift them so that people can once again zip across the waters that manatees call home. For this reason, manatees are often a subject of controversy that pits their lives against the rights of boat owners. In this book, manatee expert John E. Reynolds III and famed photographer Wayne Lynch join forces to reveal the clearest portrait of manatees ever published. Florida Manatees is a song for the manatee, a celebration of the lives of these majestic creatures. Reynolds's concise, informative text shares what scientists know about manatees, while Lynch's beautiful photographs instantly demonstrate how special these "potatoes with whiskers" really are. By encouraging an appreciation of manatees, the authors hope to help ensure a future in which Floridians can find ways to coexist with and continue to enjoy these uniquely wonderful sirenian inhabitants of their state. Included in this book: How manatees first came to Florida waters How manatees fit into the ecosystems of Florida What and how much manatees eat How manatees behave and communicate with one another Why manatees look the way they do Why manatees have whiskers How manatee mothers feed their young and much more

Paving Paradise

by Craig Pittman
Paving Paradise
Author: Craig Pittman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:
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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.

Riverman

by Ben McGrath
Riverman
Author: Ben McGrath
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2022-04-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0451494016
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“This quietly profound book belongs on the shelf next to Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.” —The New York Times The riveting true story of Dick Conant, an American folk hero who, over the course of more than twenty years, canoed solo thousands of miles of American rivers—and then disappeared near the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This book “contains everything: adventure, mystery, travelogue, and unforgettable characters” (David Grann, best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon). For decades, Dick Conant paddled the rivers of America, covering the Mississippi, Yellowstone, Ohio, Hudson, as well as innumerable smaller tributaries. These solo excursions were epic feats of planning, perseverance, and physical courage. At the same time, Conant collected people wherever he went, creating a vast network of friends and acquaintances who would forever remember this brilliant and charming man even after a single meeting. Ben McGrath, a staff writer at The New Yorker, was one of those people. In 2014 he met Conant by chance just north of New York City as Conant paddled down the Hudson, headed for Florida. McGrath wrote a widely read article about their encounter, and when Conant's canoe washed up a few months later, without any sign of his body, McGrath set out to find the people whose lives Conant had touched--to capture a remarkable life lived far outside the staid confines of modern existence. Riverman is a moving portrait of a complex and fascinating man who was as troubled as he was charismatic, who struggled with mental illness and self-doubt, and was ultimately unable to fashion a stable life for himself; who traveled alone and yet thrived on connection and brought countless people together in his wake. It is also a portrait of an America we rarely see: a nation of unconventional characters, small river towns, and long-forgotten waterways.