David M. Carroll

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Gary N
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David M. Carroll

Post by Gary N »

Since this forum is beginning again after the big crash, it's a good time for me to recommend an amazing herping classic that I read a couple months ago - David M. Carroll's "Swampwalker's Journal", from 1999. It's an amazing immersion into eastern wetlands and all the vegetation and wildlife within and without, written by a man who has spent decades returning to the same locations, watching them change according to the seasons, marking and following some of the same turtles over the years, noting when and where the spotted salamanders and wood frogs breed, and learning all of the interconnections between animals, plants, geology and the weather. Not only does he record what he sees in words, he's also a graphic artist, and the book is full of his beautiful and accurate drawings of plants and animals. Make sure you wear chest waders when you read it. I may never have the privilege to experience an eastern wetland just after the thaw, but I will always have the book to take me there whenever I want.

While most of the book is written with a poetic and almost religious reverence for the natural world, there are also many biting political comments about humans and our destruction of the natural world. Someone on the old forum stated that this book is the most negative of his series of wetlands books. It might be - after reading it I read "The Year of the Turtle", which had fewer political comments and which I also highly recommend - but I found his comments about politics and the environment to be fearlessly accurate and inspiring. He certainly did not make any friends in the nature conserving or wildlife managing industries with this passage:

"It is beyond ironic that we can all but never say no to the housing project, shopping mall, hotel, highway, golf course, or expansion of agriculture, but that after the habitat has been fragmented, funds, agencies, and groups can be drummed up to cage the final nests, relocate buckets of eggs, fast-forward hatchling turtles in aquariums, and dump them into encircled habitat remnants. The most direct, simple, and viable solution, to simply leave the place alone, has no place in the debate. It is rarely a matter of whether or not a project is to go forward but how it is to go forward, with various token, ecologically meaningless compromises and mitigations, together with management plans for the lost landscape. We look to feel good when we should feel ashamed. "Wildlife management" is a sorry contradiction in terms. There already is a management plan. It has been unfolding since life's appearance on earth."
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Scott Waters
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Re: David M. Carroll

Post by Scott Waters »

Gary N wrote:Since this forum is beginning again after the big crash, it's a good time for me to recommend an amazing herping classic that I read a couple months ago - David M. Carroll's "Swampwalker's Journal", from 1999. It's an amazing immersion into eastern wetlands and all the vegetation and wildlife within and without, written by a man who has spent decades returning to the same locations, watching them change according to the seasons, marking and following some of the same turtles over the years, noting when and where the spotted salamanders and wood frogs breed, and learning all of the interconnections between animals, plants, geology and the weather. Make sure you wear chest waders when you read it. I may never have the privilege to experience an eastern wetland just after the thaw, but I will always have the book to take me there whenever I want.

While most of the book is written with a poetic and religious reverence for the natural world, there are also many biting political comments about humans and our destruction of the natural world. Someone on the old forum stated that this book is the most negative of his series of wetlands books. It might be - after reading it I read "The Year of the Turtle", which had fewer political comments and which I also highly recommend - but I found his comments about politics and the environment to be fearlessly accurate and inspiring. He certainly did not make any friends in the nature conserving or wildlife managing industries with this passage:

"It is beyond ironic that we can all but never say no to the housing project, shopping mall, hotel, highway, golf course, or expansion of agriculture, but that after the habitat has been fragmented, funds, agencies, and groups can be drummed up to cage the final nests, relocate buckets of eggs, fast-forward hatchling turtles in aquariums, and dump them into encircled habitat remnants. The most direct, simple, and viable solution, to simply leave the place alone, has no place in the debate. It is rarely a matter of whether or not a project is to go forward but how it is to go forward, with various token, ecologically meaningless compromises and mitigations, together with management plans for the lost landscape. We look to feel good when we should feel ashamed. "Wildlife management" is a sorry contradiction in terms. There already is a management plan. It has been unfolding since life's appearance on earth."
Fantastic recommendation, Gary!

thanks,
scott
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justinm
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Re: David M. Carroll

Post by justinm »

I've been a big fan of his books for a long time. I like how he calls Grey Treefrogs "lichens with eyes".
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Nshepard
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Re: David M. Carroll

Post by Nshepard »

Great writer, been reading his stuff for a while now - check out some of his other books. "The Year of the Turtle" is another great read but my favorite from him was his sort of autobiography, "A Self-Portrait with Turtles". Great stuff.
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Gary N
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Re: David M. Carroll

Post by Gary N »

Nshepard wrote:Great writer, been reading his stuff for a while now - check out some of his other books. "The Year of the Turtle" is another great read but my favorite from him was his sort of autobiography, "A Self-Portrait with Turtles". Great stuff.
Thanks, I'll look for that one, too.
John Kilner III
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Re: David M. Carroll

Post by John Kilner III »

Thanks for posting this recommendation! I will have to pick this one up sooner than later! :)
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Mike Pingleton
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Re: David M. Carroll

Post by Mike Pingleton »

good post. I'm a huge Carroll fan.

-Mike
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