A native Floridian, CRAIG PITTMAN is the author of the nonfiction Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther and The New York Times bestseller Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country. Since 1998 he has reported on environmental issues for Florida’s largest newspaper, Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times). He co-wrote with Matthew Waite Paving Paradise: Florida’s Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss, and since then he has written Manatee Insanity: Inside the War Over Florida’s Most Famous Endangered Species and The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Beautiful Orchids.