Around 1990 was when the niles claimed to be confirmed but there are reports on record going back to the 70`s maybe further. For example in northern Florida one individual was collected in Lake Kanapaha, Alachua County, in 1981. This type of thing.

Around 2004 A biologist from Tampa Matt Campell was called in by the city of Cape Coral to do a study. He played the game the way these guys always do. If he would have said he found a few monitors and that the only things in their stomachs were apple snails and Cuban tree frogs no body would have done a thing. Instead he started talking about how the monitors could kill and eat your pets and endangered species like burrowing owls. He also gave wild estimations for the population and possibility of expansion. Exactly the formula Skip Snow has used with the Burmese pythons and with similar results . It's all about milking the system.

A couple of environmental groups ate that crap up and gave Campell somewhere between 50 to 70 k to work on the problem plus perks for a year. This clown made a killing and accomplished nothing. The reason groups finance these guys is simple . Press time . For their wright off money these groups get a huge amount of local and national TV, radio and press coverage to aid their objectives. It 's a bargain. As soon as that first round of grant money was burned up even if the "problem" was the same as it always was Campell was given the boot. Why not, Pay once and the story's go on forever they got what they wanted out of this clown. What's funny is while the environmental radicals were behind Campbell the animal right activist were trying to shut him down.

The city of Cape Coral then tried to hit up the federal government for cash and assistance but that was a no go and with good reason. At that time Cape coral was in the middle of one of the biggest growth booms in US history all up and the west Coast money was being made hand over fist. With all that cash flow these people were crying poor mouth trying to get the federal government to hand them money for what amounts to nothing more then a local problem. To top it off they just fired their chosen expert " Campell " because no body thought he was worth paying. The whole thig is a joke.

Ernie Eison
westwoodreptiles.com

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