A Florida Book of Knowledge

Imagine what Florida would look like if state law required all residents to pass a test on their knowledge of the state's natural wonders before they could get a driver's license.

The idea, of course, would be to connect the concept of good citizenship with that of good stewardship. By implication, if you think the Everglades is a hot new rock band, you don't deserve to live here.

Such a law would instantly solve one of the state's biggest headaches—highway congestion. With no legal way to drive, Floridians likely would stew in their natural ignorance before they took up bicycles or mass transit.

Sober assessments of the average Floridian's nature I.Q. put it somewhere between abominable and criminal. For years, popular writers such as Carl Hiaasen have gotten rich by hilariously mining a mountain of environmental ignorance in a populace that would be hard put to differentiate between a sandhill crane and a sandbar.

Now comes a delightful new way for all Floridians to see and understand their marvelous state as never before. A team of environmental writers based in Tallahassee has produced a rare species of guidebook specifically designed for those who are embarrassed to admit how little they know about what's left of the wild side of the Sunshine State.

Priceless Florida: Natural Ecosystems and Native Species (Pineapple Press) is an all-new, comprehensive, layman's guide to the state's natural treasures. Written expressly for a general audience, the 432-page book takes readers from the coral reefs of the Keys all the way to the highest piney ridge in the Panhandle, highlighting the trail with more than 800 color photos.

The book is the brainchild of Ellie Whitney, a Ph.D. molecular biologist and author of some two dozen textbooks. Whitney was inspired to launch the project 16 years ago after she got her feet wet (literally) in courses on Florida ecology taught by Anne Rudloe and Bruce Means, two of North Florida's most well-known naturalists. Means and Rudloe are co-authors with Whitney on the book.

A Manhattan native, Whitney moved to Tallahassee in the early 1970s and soon became hungry to learn about the natural history of her adopted state. She got way more than she bargained for when she signed up for Rudloe's and Means' classes.

While Rudloe introduced her to the Panhandle's luxuriant saltwater marshes, Means guided her through freshwater swamps, upland streams and pine forests. Whitney took all of their courses, some of them twice, relishing the scientists' energy, flare for teaching, and above all, their passion for their subjects.

“Nothing turns Bruce on more than finding something under a rock,” Whitney quipped. “And he has a real gift for getting others excited about it, too.”

Priceless contains some of the latest scientific and environmental findings on Florida available, and is replete with handy glossaries of scientific terms found in the margins of almost every page.

Advance copies of the book won praise from some high-profile reviewers. Among them, Harvard's famed sociobiologist E.O. Wilson who wrote that the book “combines the depth of an encyclopedia with the freshness and accessibility of a field manual.”

To help make the book as useful as possible, the authors pushed to make the heavily illustrated book's selling price palatable to the average pocketbook, said Whitney. With a grant to subsidize printing costs provided by the Elizabeth Ordway Dunn Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Coral Gables, the book debuted with an attractive $29.95 hardcover price.

For information on obtaining a copy of Priceless Florida, visit the Pineapple Press Web site at www.pineapplepress.com or call 1-800-746-3275. - F.S.