Beginning next week, Key West The Newspaper will serialize "The Willing Seller," a new novel by Ellen Sugarman. It's about environmental terrorism in the Florida Keys. She says it's a work of fiction— but some of the characters in this book, both heroes and villains, may seem all too familiar.
Sugarman is a nationally-known investigative reporter whose work has appeared in publications such as Newsweek, Time, Vogue, Ms., Penthouse, New York Times Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun Times, and the Miami Herald's Tropic Magazine.
As a freelance television producer, she has worked with ABC, Fox News, A&E and the BBC. Several years ago, she produced a special on environmental terrorism in the Florida Keys for ABC's 20/20. Although scheduled to run several times, the show was ultimately killed, reportedly because of pressure from the Nature Conservancy.
The program did air in the Keys, however, after activist Peter Anderson was able to obtain a videotape of the show and paid for time to run it on local cable television.
Among a number of shocking revelations, the program documents that State Attorney Kirk Zuelch, while a member of the local Nature Conservancy board, offered to drop charges against property owners accused of environmental crimes if they would sell or give their land to the Nature Conservancy. Zuelch quickly resigned from the Nature Conservancy board after he was interviewed by 20/20.
Anderson encouraged viewers to tape the show when it ran on local TV. We may be able to make some of these copies available on loan to KWTN readers.
Stay tuned.