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Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year

Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year

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Author: David M. Carroll
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book

List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $0.65
You Save: $14.35 (96%)



New (21) Used (27) Collectible (1) from $0.65

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 6 reviews
Sales Rank: 489396

Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8

ISBN: 0618127372
Dewey Decimal Number: 333.91809742
UPC: 046442127370
EAN: 9780618127375
ASIN: 0618127372

Publication Date: June 14, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Text shows use, some highlighting and writing. Good for reading copy.

Also Available In:

  • Hardcover - Swampwalker's Journal

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
Wetland. The very word makes environmentalists swoon and real estate developers curse. While squishy places like swamps and bogs used to be considered unfit for human habitation, the 19th and 20th centuries saw a veritable festival of "reclamation" as the world's wetlands were transformed into land usable by humans. But what beauty and natural utility was lost in the process? In Swampwalker's Journal, David M. Carroll transcends the political to find joy in the damp places he has loved since he was a boy. In chapters describing his favorite vernal pools, marshes, swamps, ponds, and bogs, Carroll describes hours spent watching animals frolic in their moist, vegetated homes. Braving mosquito bites and the wrath of bears, he embarks on a journey through these mysterious, underappreciated ecosystems and records their ups and downs faithfully, complete with exquisite illustrations. You feel almost as if you're reading his field journals, the writing is so immediate and full of detail. Here, he describes a hunting heron:

He keeps as still as the breathless afternoon for a time, then moves again, taking several slow strides, each accompanied by a rhythmic, gradual curvilinear extension and retraction of his serpentine neck. From time to time he redirects his head, his long, sharp bill poised, his avid eyes ablaze with focus and intent. His movements are effected with such heron stealth that even in motion he could pass unseen.

Carroll saves his plea for the preservation of these fragile, fading landscapes until the epilogue, allowing readers to become as charmed as he is by the wetlands he loves. Annie Dillard calls David Carroll "a genius, a madman, a national treasure," and you'll agree when you've read this beautiful piece of nature writing, an unforgettable "tour de swamp." --Therese Littleton

Product Description
David Carroll has dedicated his life to art and to wetlands. He is as passionate about swamps, bogs, and vernal ponds and the creatures who live in them as most of us are about our families and closest friends. He knows frogs and snakes, muskrats and minks, dragonflies, water lilies, cattails, sedges--everything that swims, flies, trudges, slithers, or sinks its roots in wet places. In this "intimate and wise book" (Sue Hubbell), Carroll takes us on a lively, unforgettable yearlong journey, illustrated with his own elegant drawings, through the wetlands and reveals why they are so important to his life and ours -- and to all life on Earth.


Customer Reviews:   Read 1 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars Walk A Wetland With This Guy   May 30, 2007
Well-written and an easy read. It made me want to do 2 things: Strap on my waders and head to the nearest wetland to see what I can find and order the other books in his "wet sneaker" trilogy. Enjoy.


4 out of 5 stars Well-written piece of nature writing; a veritable feast!   January 18, 2007
The book is a pleasure to read although I did get bogged down a bit toward the end. It is obvious that this guy lived with his subject. Some of the identification descriptions of flora and fauna can become overwhelming to the reader not familiar with the northeastern environs. But, on the whole a well written book destined to become a classic in nature writing.


5 out of 5 stars How Many Kinds of Wet Land   May 29, 2006
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

In addition to what everyone else has said (the poetry of the language, the gorgeous drawings, etc.), this book is especially useful in that it describes the relationships between all the different kinds of wetlands, and within riparian zones in general. It should be required reading for every developer and community activist intent on preserving some hydrologic function in natural areas. This is a wonderful, wonderful book.


5 out of 5 stars A glimpse of life   March 7, 2002
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Mr. Carroll has captured nature as it truly is. Like a fine craftsman he was one with the subject and as an artist he has accurately recorded what he observed and has presented the information coherently. I'm left with an indelible, poignant legacy.


5 out of 5 stars This is the real thing.   October 11, 2001
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

David M. Carroll is one of the finest nature writer/philosophers I've ever come across in my entire reading career. Swampwalker's Journal is a book to be savored, relied upon. Caroll knows the lives of the wetlands so intimately, from first-hand experience over long years, that you know you're getting a privileged glimpse into deep nature. Added to that, he is a truly masterful illustrator, and a graceful, profound writer. I'll be waiting to buy any other book he produces.....

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