Naturalist and Artist David M. Carroll is the author and illustrator of three widely acclaimed natural histories The Year of the Turtle, Trout Reflections and Swampwalker's Journal (the wet sneaker trilogy). David is an active lecturer and turtles/wetland preservation advocate. His art and writing, as well as his extensive fieldwork with turtles and wetlands has been widely recognized, and been the subject of many feature articles. His botanical and forestry paintings have earned him awards from the US Department of Agriculture and the International Society of Arborculture. In 1999, he received an Environmental Merit Award from the Environmental Protection Agency.

David is a graduate from the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts and Tufts University. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of New Hampshire and an Honorary Masters from New England College.

David's presentations on turtle ecology, vernal pools, and other wetland habitats, as well as seminars and workshops on nature-journaling have been featured in numerous schools, colleges, universities, conservation institutions and libraries to audiences ranging from elementary schools to graduate student and professional herptology symposia.

His art work has been widely exhibited including shows at the Hunt Institure for Botanical Documentation (permanent collection), Darmouth College Museum and Galleries, Plymouth State art gallery and the Dodd Center, University of Connecticut.

David and his wife, the painter Laurette Carroll have lived in Warner, NH since 1969.

To learn more about David M. Carroll visit www.lib.uconn.edu/Exhibits/carroll/carroll.html

In Swampwalker's Journal David Carroll shares his knowledge and passion with the rest of us, taking us on a miraculous year-long journey, illustrated with his own elegant drawings, through the wetlands, and revealing why they are so important to his life and ours–and to all life on Earth.

Anyone who has ever fished for trout will recognize Carroll as the most eloquent spokesperson imaginable for the sport-someone who in a simple sentence or stroke of the brush can convey what it is about the trout and its world that lures them back again and again in passionate pursuit.

Carroll possesses both an extensive scientific background and an intuitive understanding of his subject. With him we experience the flow of the seasons along wild waterways and gain an intense appreciation and intimate knowledge of the turtle's world. We follow a spotted turtle from emergence in spring to hibernation in the fall; we watch a painted turtle come ashore to lay her eggs in the same slow methodical fashion as her ancestors of 200 million years ago. We witness the struggle of a hatchling snapping turtle unearth himself and look out for the first time at the word he must face alone.