It was just a matter of time before the Rodda & Reed paper was going to be refuted by other professionals. This USDA paper is just one of a number of comments from other agencies and professionals over the last year pointing out serious and accurate flaws in the original USGS study. The easiest way to disprove the vast majority of their assertions in the very beginning was to simply look at the historical climate data for the Florida peninsula. Periodic cold fronts intrude into the central Florida region every 5 to 10 years that drop temps below the 30 degree F mark for significant periods of time. This would obviously limit acceptable habitat to the lower third of the State at best. In a worst case scenario, we saw what happened this last winter. I fully understand that there were other political and academic factors involved behind the scenes with the Rodda study, but even with that, it was still ludicrous for them to take this as far as they did. Hopefully the political and public perception damage can be reduced, but that could be a tough one. However, it is fortunate that the attention span of the general public in the U.S. is pretty short, and there are many, many more important issues that they should be scrutinizing than this insignificant one.

Kelly

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