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Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

Tampa Bay Times reporter Craig Pittman is a native Floridian. 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. Since 1998 he has reported on environmental issues for the Times. He is a four-time winner of the Waldo Proffitt Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism in Florida and a series of stories on Florida's vanishing wetlands that he wrote with Matthew Waite won the top investigative reporting award in both 2006 and 2007 from the Society of Environmental Journalists. He is the author of three books: "The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World's Most Beautiful Orchid" (2012); "Manatee Insanity: Inside the War Over Florida's Most Famous Endangered Species," (2010); and, co-written with Waite, "Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss," (2009), all published by the University Press of Florida. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and two children.

Phone: (727) 893-8530

Email: craig@tampabay.com

Twitter: @CraigTimes

  1. River of Grass flows again into Everglades National Park

    05/15/13WetlandsBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    Eighty-five years ago, work crews built a dam across the Everglades and called it the Tamiami Trail. The two-lane highway, completed in 1928, blocked most of the flow of the River of Grass just as it began trickling into what would become Everglades National Park.

    On Wednesday, the dam broke.

    About 10 a.m., a worker driving a backhoe cracked apart the old roadbed, letting the shallow water flow into the park the way it did eight decades before. ...

    A backhoe breaks through the roadbed of the old Tamiami Trail, which blocked the flow of the famed River of Grass for 85 years.

  2. Legislature allocates $10 million for springs; DEP scrambling over how to spend

    05/10/13WaterBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    In the waning days of the legislative session, Florida lawmakers approved putting an extra $10 million in the $74.5 billion state budget for "the restoration, protection, and preservation of Florida's springs."

    There's only one problem: The agency that's supposed to spend the money, the state Department of Environmental Protection, doesn't know yet quite what to do with it.

    The legislative budget language doesn't mention any specific projects. It just says the money should enable DEP "to initiate direct actions that will reduce pollutants and promote the proper flow volume of underground and above ground springs that provides a balance between the agricultural industry and water quality."...

  3. Study: phosphate mine expansion will cause 'significant' wetlands damage

    05/05/13WetlandsBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    Creating three phosphate mines and expanding a fourth will destroy nearly 10,000 acres of wetlands and 50 miles of streams, causing a "significant impact," according to a study prepared to guide permitting by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

    But the two-year study —- prepared for the corps by a consultant paid by the phosphate industry — contends the miners would do such a good job of making up for the damage, through a process called mitigation, that the impact will not be all that noticeable....

  4. 10 people who deserve to be 'Great Floridians' more than Bubba Watson

    05/04/13PerspectiveBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    Last month, Gov. Rick Scott named golfer Gerry Lester "Bubba" Watson Jr. and 22 other people (including some unemployed guy named Tebow) to the state's official list of "Great Floridians." The list began in 1981 with former Gov. LeRoy Collins as the first honoree and has since come to include 88 more names, including Walt Disney, Juan Ponce de Leon, Mary McLeod Bethune and Marjory Stoneman Douglas, not to mention a passel of politicians and a couple of big campaign donors. But ... Bubba Watson? No offense to Bubba, the 2012 Masters champ and the pride of Bagdad, but here are 10 people who deserve to be called "Great Floridians" more than he does:...

    Photographer Clyde Butcher is the Ansel Adams of our Florida flora and fauna. This photo was taken in April 2012 when he joined the Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition team for a stretch during its 100-day trek from the Everglades all the way to the Georgia border to call attention to the possibilities of a protected, unbroken path for wildlife to use to traverse the Sunshine State.

  5. Panhandle lawmaker loads bills with environmental deregulation

    04/28/13EnvironmentBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    Every year during the legislative session in Tallahassee, state Rep. Jimmy Patronis does two things:

    He organizes a day for everyone to wear seersucker suits. And he pushes a bill to change Florida's environmental regulations, like the one Thursday that passed the House, blocking local governments from protecting thousands of acres of wetlands.

    Patronis, R-Panama City, is the man who gives environmental activists nightmares — a charming and savvy lawmaker convinced that Florida would be better off if government would get out of the way and let businesses boost the economy....

    Rep. Jimmy Patronis, right, of Panama City is sponsoring a bill that strips local government protection from wetlands.

  6. Health survey watching cleanup workers from 2010 gulf oil spill

    04/27/13WaterBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    Three years ago, during the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP hired thousands of people across the Gulf Coast to don protective suits and go out in boats to collect the oil or to scrape up the tar balls washing ashore.

    Now the government is watching 33,000 of those people to see if coming in contact with the oil made them sick.

    The vast study, overseen by the National Institutes of Health, began signing up participants in 2011 and should last for a decade. So far, "it confirms much of what you would expect," said Dr. Dale Sandler, who's in charge....

  7. Environmental groups enlist Bob Graham to help stop bills

    04/23/13 Blog Craig Pittman

    A pair of bills now steamrolling through the Florida House and Senate have drawn such strong objections from environmental groups that former Sen. Bob Graham flew to Tallahassee this week to lobby against them.

    The two bills — HB 999 sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Patronis and SB 1684 by Sen. Thad Altman — are packed with provisions relating to sugar company leases in the Everglades, making it easier to wipe out wetlands and limiting the power of water districts to control pumping....

  8. Environmental groups enlist Bob Graham to help stop bills

    04/23/13EnvironmentBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    A pair of bills now steamrolling through the Florida House and Senate have drawn such strong objections from environmental groups that former Sen. Bob Graham flew to Tallahassee this week to lobby against them.

    The two bills — HB 999 sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Patronis and SB 1684 by Sen. Thad Altman — are packed with provisions relating to sugar company leases in the Everglades, making it easier to wipe out wetlands and limiting the power of water districts to control pumping. ...

    Former Sen.Bob Graham says the two bills promote special interests over public interests.

  9. Despite petition, Legislature to do nothing to help springs this year

    04/22/13WaterBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    Although thousands of Florida voters signed a petition demanding action, the Legislature will not pass any bills aimed at restoring and protecting the state's iconic springs this year, according to the chairman of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee.

    The reason, according to Rep. Matt Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres, is that state regulators are already setting what are called "minimum flows and levels" for the major springs, an effort he said should take another year and a half and help legislators figure out what further assistance might be needed....

  10. Nelson calls for lifting liability cap on oil spills

    04/19/13 Blog Craig Pittman

    ST. PETERSBURG -- Florida Sen. Bill Nelson announced Friday that he's trying again to pass a bill that would lift the current cap on liability for future oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

    Nelson, D-Fla, joined U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, as well as a pair of marine scientists and a handful of environmental activists in a new conference at a waterfront park Friday to commemorate the third anniversary of the BP oil spill on Saturday and to call for a change in the liability law....

  11. Desperate officials launch program to save Florida grasshopper sparrow

    04/18/13WildlifeBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    In a desperate bid to save a nearly extinct species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that it is launching a captive breeding program for Florida's grasshopper sparrow.

    If they do nothing, experts predict the sparrow will go extinct in three to five years, just like its cousin, the dusky seaside sparrow. The dusky disappeared from the Earth in 1987 when the last survivor died at Disney World....

    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that it is launching a captive breeding program for Florida’s grasshopper sparrow. If nothing is done, experts predict the sparrow will go extinct in three to five years.

  12. Gulf oil spill's effects still has seafood industry nervous

    04/13/13WildlifeBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    Three years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Gulf of Mexico seafood industry is still holding its breath and expecting the worst. After all, sick fish are still turning up off Louisiana. Scientists are still probing potential problems with crabs and shrimp.

    "There's still a lot of nervousness," said Bob Jones of the Southeastern Fisheries Association, a commercial fishing trade group based in Tallahassee. ...

    A survey of the gulf by University of South Florida scientists found more fish, including tilefish like this one, suffering from skin lesions in the area where the oil spill occurred.

  13. Judge upholds suspended wetlands expert, blasts DEP for permitting controversial project

    04/12/13WetlandsBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    A judge has ruled that the state Department of Environmental Protection was wrong to ignore its top wetlands expert and issue a permit for a controversial project that she had warned would damage the environment.

    The ruling shows "good science is being protected," said Tom Reese, the St. Petersburg attorney for the Florida Wildlife Federation, which challenged the permit.

    The permit the DEP issued would have resulted in the loss of 300 acres of wetlands, considered vital to soaking up floodwaters and recharging the aquifer, he said....

    Highlands Ranch’s website features a photo of wetlands. The problem, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection’s top wetlands expert, is that much of the land isn’t wet.

  14. St. Petersburg's Ceviche restaurant closed after roaches and other problems found

    04/08/13BusinessBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    ST. PETERSBURG — A state inspector closed down the Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg Monday, citing the restaurant for a raft of violations ranging from failure to provide safe temperature controls on its meat to more than two dozen live roaches found along the cook's line.

    An orange sign with the word CLOSED in big black letters was posted on the door of the 10 Beach Drive restaurant, which is part of a chain with locations in Tampa, Clearwater, Orlando, Sarasota and Delray....

    The state has cited Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaurant for temperature violations and roaches found along the cook’s line.

  15. Three years after BP oil spill, USF research finds massive die-off

    04/04/13WaterBy Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

    The oil that spewed into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon disaster three years ago killed off millions of amoeba-like creatures that form the basis of the gulf's aquatic food chain, according to scientists at the University of South Florida.

    The die-off of tiny foraminifera stretched through the mile-deep DeSoto Canyon and beyond, following the path of an underwater plume of oil that snaked out from the wellhead, said David Hollander, a chemical oceanographer with USF....

    APTN photographer Rich Matthews takes a closer look at oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico south of Venice, La.