Losing It All to Sprawl

Bill Belleville is a veteran author and documentary filmmaker specializing in environmental issues. His books include the critically acclaimed River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida's St. Johns River. Belleville won an Emmy for the production and scripting of Wekiva: Legacy or Loss? and was named Environmental Writer of the Year by Florida Audubon Society and Florida Wildlife Federation.

"Weaves tales of vivid scenery and feral neighbors with the environmental devastation that overcame his rural neighborhood as the realtors and bulldozers rolled in." - E: The Environmental Magazine "The title says it all. If you live here, you know what he's talking about." - Tampa Tribune "Belleville shows the impact of relentless growth on one corner of Florida, a few houses on a dead end road,... a low-key community that had made its peace with nature, and how a mall and a few residential developers killed it." - South Florida Sun-Sentinel "Belleville chronicles the building of a regional mall just outside Sanford; and how the mall and spin-off development of gas stations, condos, and subdivisions swallows up his rural dirt-road neighborhood of Florida cracker homes built in the 1920s.... There's plenty to learn and ponder as you follow Belleville's literary hike over the sandy uplands and lush swamp bottoms of Central Florida." - Florida Times-Union "Reads like poetry and feels like a prayer." - Orlando Weekly"