David Schmoller

When he was 11 years old, David Schmoller was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said he wanted to be a baseball player or a conservationist. Baseball never did pan out. But he did get a degree in ecology. For over 40 years, he has been surveying the wild, conducting rare species surveys, botany and wildlife surveys, vegetation inventories, wetland delineations, natural area inventories, natural community classifications, and biological evaluations and assessments in the Northern Great Lakes, Northern Great Plains, and Northern Rocky Mountains. Most work has been for federal and state agencies. To date, he has surveyed 226,537 acres and 2,142 miles of public land. While getting his degree in ecology, he took a large course load in art and writing, which has been an asset when writing and illustrating his reports.

As it has turned out, he has found that he much prefers a hiking stick to a baseball bat.