Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year

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Walk A Wetland With This Guy

Well-written piece of nature writing; a veritable feast!

How Many Kinds of Wet Land

A glimpse of life

This is the real thing.

Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year
David M. Carroll
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
Nature Writing | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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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

Book 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:

Walk A Wetland With This Guy.......2007-05-30

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.

Well-written piece of nature writing; a veritable feast!.......2007-01-18

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.

How Many Kinds of Wet Land.......2006-05-29

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.

A glimpse of life.......2002-03-07

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.

This is the real thing........2001-10-11

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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Swampwalker's Journal: A Wetlands Year
David M. Carroll
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: B000O8UNV4

Book Description

Although North America suffers through several dreary months of winter each year, this guide describes trees and shrubs that make the barren winter landscape a wonderland of texture and color. Part one of the book conveys the elegance of deciduous trees and shrubs with an extreme attention to detail—Persian parrotia offers twisted, sinuous branches and exfoliating bark; witch hazel presents distinctive yellow and orange straplike flowers; and beautyberry produces vivid purple berries the birds cannot resist. A shorter second section discusses the virtues of evergreens, both broadleaf and coniferous, and includes two useful appendices that cover evergreen care and list deer-resistant trees and shrubs.

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Tree defoliation by winter moth Operophtera brumata L. during an outbreak affected by structure of forest landscape [An article from: Forest Ecology and Management]
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Tree defoliation by winter moth Operophtera brumata L. (Geometridae, Lepidoptera) caterpillars was quantified in the Bialowieza Forest (E Poland) during the recent outbreak (2002). To assess effects of forestry management on defoliation, comparisons were made between mixed species (Tilio-Carpinetum) old-growth stands of natural origin in strictly protected primeval and managed fragments. This forest type was continuous in the primeval part, but highly fragmented in the managed part. The old-growth remnants in the latter part were usually surrounded by younger tree stands (often coniferous plantations). We predicted the winter moth densities would be reduced in fragmented stands due to dispersal mortality incurred by the early stage larvae. As predicted, all species of host trees suffered greater defoliation in the primeval forest. Hornbeam Carpinus betulus L. was the heaviest defoliated host. Other trees, which developed leaves synchronously with hornbeam - maple Acer platanoides L., lime Tilia cordata Mill., and pedunculate oak Quercus robur L. - were strongly affected as well. While we do not show a causal mechanism, greater dispersal mortality in fragmented stands is a most plausible explanation for the observed patterns of defoliation.

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Evolution and the Recognition Concept of Species. Collected Writings.
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Manufacturer: Johns Hopkins Univ Press
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Book Description

Efficiency as well as economy of chemical processes can be increased by integration of reaction and separation in one unit. In this case e.g. reversible reaction may reach complete conversion. Well known examples are reactive distillations. But it has to be taken into account that process integration is not advantages in any case. An important parameter for process design is the degree of integration which varies between homogeneous integration, partial integration with distributed functionalities and non-integrated sequential processes.

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Book Description

Many electronic and acoustic signals can be modeled as sums of sinusoids and noise. However, the amplitudes, phases and frequencies of the sinusoids are often unknown and must be estimated in order to characterize the periodicity or near-periodicity of a signal and consequently to identify its source. Quinn and Hannan present and analyze several practical techniques used for such estimation. The problem of tracking slow frequency changes of a very noisy sinusoid over time is also considered. Rigorous analyses are presented via asymptotic or large sample theory, together with physical insight. The book focuses on achieving extremely accurate estimates when the signal to noise ratio is low but the sample size is large.

Customer Reviews:

Useful, but painful.......2007-04-07

I've been using this book recently in my research. It certainly contains a wealth of information on the art of frequency estimation (though it is not as comprehensive as the title might suggest). However, the author manages to make concepts more difficult than they should be. For example, in some cases he has taken what were very lucid derivations out of other papers and reworked them such that they are no longer clear and intuitive. Reference books are supposed to do the opposite.... Nevertheless, the book is one-of-a-kind, and gives a good overview of the field.

Excellent Frequency Estimation Algorithm Presentation........2005-12-18

I was pleasantly surprised when i saw the title of this book for the first time; I couldn't even find an article dedicated explicitely to Frequency Tracking Algorithms, let alone a whole book! Specifically, i was looking for a reasonably good presentation of frequency detection algorithms to help me extract frequencies from voice signals. I am no programming wizzard, so i restrict myself to Matlab. This book gives a very strong and to the point intro and then it gives you the exact amount of mathematical explanation to understand each algorithm, what it can do, how it does it, and - maybe most importantly - its limitations. If you are working with Matlab, the programs given in an Appendix at the end are really helpfull. I recommend this book to anyone who is doing research involving Frequency Estimation. It is really one of a kind and i, for one, would like to see a second edition with more algorithms (and possibly more programs!).

Not well prepared as a book.......2003-11-10

As a book, I don't think it is well prepared. A lot of equations can be put into appendix and more descriptions can be done on the underlying physics, modeling approach and the meaning of the algorithms. Others like computation/speed trade off of each approach/algorithm are worthy to be addressed too.

Also, I have seen duplicated (almost) paragraphs for expanding a one-dimension solution to n-dimensions that is not necessary to be put into the main body of the book

Author's note.......2001-11-21

I am writing this review to counter the previous anonymous review, and as there does not appear to be an author's review page. Forgive me for giving 5 stars, but I would hardly have given it none! This book is meant for those interested in algorithms for frequency estimation, and the statistical behaviour/performance of these algorithms. It necessarily contains lots of nice equations, as these are needed to understand the problems and solutions properly. It is not meant to be bedtime reading. Seventeen pages of useful Matlab code would seem pretty generous to me - the book is not a Matlab Primer. My programs are also available from my web page.
These are corrected versions of the ones in the book (there were a few typos).

Equations Galore.......2001-10-15

This book contains an abundance of equations, which put me to sleep. I think it would gain a wider audience if it included some real-world applications coupled with matlab example programs. The 259-page book only contains 17-pages of matlab code.

Book Description

Widely acclaimed as a masterpiece, this novel from the O. Henry Award winner is finally back in print. In her acclaimed second novel, Braverman explores the intertwined lives of three women - a prosperous whore, a murderous housewife, and a weary matriarch - who await absolution and revelation in the bougainvillaea- and violence-filled barrio of Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews:

A Masterpiece of Literature.......2006-01-18

I read Palm Latitudes while being snowed in during a freak blizzard, without power, heat or lights. I read most of the book out loud, the brillance of the language, the power of the word and a solitary candle kept me warm. It was as if I entered those Palm Latitudes during that snowstorm and those characters were with me.

Braverman, a Jewish woman, got a lot of flack for using three Latina voices for her characters. What her critics failed to recognized was she was creating a mythology, both feminine and tropical and it had nothing to do with the old white ways.

One of the characters in the novel comes to the realization, "We don't live in an age of anxiety. We live in an age of terror." I think this novel was ahead of it's time (written in the early 80's and not published until '89) with it's inclusion of AIDS, and the only redeemable males in the novel are homosexual, perhaps most people are not ready to enter these Latitudes. But if you deny yourself access, you'll be denying yourself the magic that the written page was meant to offer.

inspirational.......2003-02-01

i am in an architecture program and i used this book to inspire a school project for housing. i was totally engrossed in the book.

Connections.......2000-09-26

Kate Braverman sees connections and shows them to us -- "She can outwait them. Any woman could. Women have waited millions of years, growing seperate as another species, with visions and priorities no man-words, no man-measurements can comprehend." -- like this one. A LUSH story.

Exquisite Reckonings.......2000-05-09

I first came across Ms. Braverman through a serendipitous reading of her Squandering the Blue. Palm Latitudes is an extraordinary work which traces the rooted infrastructure of three women's lives, each one a hybrid creation of the industrial village of Los Angeles, each one a cantadora of resonant flesh and spirit. To read Braverman's poetic masterpiece is to experience literary alchemy. I keep the novel at my bedside, as I have done for the past five years, and am repeatedly renewed by its presence. This is an masterful author to cherish; this is a work to sustain you through life's many quickenings and passages.

A Master Craftswoman.......1998-12-23

Braverman's writing is so beautiful, so packed with imagery, so multi-leveled that it almost overwhelms her story line. For those of us who love the language, her every sentence, every paragraph is like a trip to a fine dessert bar. This is a book in which to luxuriate.

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Palm Latitudes
Kate Braverman
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OIZS9G

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