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PDF Eager The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter Ben Goldfarb 9781603589086 Books

Product details Paperback 304 pages Publisher Chelsea Green Publishing; Reprint edition (March 8, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1603589082

Eager The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter Ben Goldfarb 9781603589086 Books Reviews

• Every now and then a well-written and cheerfully-researched book comes along that changes the conversation forever. Suddenly no one is asking whether DDT is harmful or we didn’t do enough to prevent 9/11, they are just discussing what to do about it now and where to start first.
  
  This might just be one of those books. With Eager The surprising secret lives of beavers and why they matter, accomplished author Ben Goldfarb lays out a Michener-esque sweeping look at an America that was burrowed, shaped and watered by beavers. He uses a convincing cast of characters to tell this compelling story – characters as varied as they are persuasive. From the “high-spirited and freckled” fluvial geomorphologist Rebekah Levine in Montana, to the “geyser of colorful catch phrases” Joe Wheaton in Utah, or the fish biologist with the “gentle manner of painting instructor”, Carol Evans of Nevada, each tell their part of a highly relevant ecological drama that we never even realized we were waiting for.
  
  I have a lot of favorite parts to this book, but an enduring winner is the unparalleled illumination Ben shines on a pre-settlement America when beavers and their dams were everywhere and complex interlacing streams looked more like ‘a bowl of spaghetti’ than individual channels due to their ubiquitous work – my most stark and unfavorite part is similarly unforgettable – the devastating near apocalyptic impact that the fur trade had in drying our national landscape.
  
  Besides introducing the reader to beaver believers from every walk of life all over the country and beyond, and stacking the courtroom with deftly-delivered scientific arguments from every field, Goldfarb is a careful archeologist who unearths historical passages that introduce a new understanding of past figures and their thoughts about a beaver-made country. Like a special lens attached to a telescope, his writing becomes a prism through which beavers shape our past, our present and our future.
• For transparency, I've known Ben Goldfarb for the better part of a decade and have enjoyed his journalistic writings about everything from shellfish to Yellowstone. But this book is something else!
  
  I have a bachelor's degree in wildlife biology and a PhD in aquatic ecology. I know quite a bit about beaver biology and, when Ben first mentioned he was going to write a book all about beavers, I was pretty skeptical that he could fill 250 pages with beaver information that would be interesting and approachable to a broad audience. And I was dead wrong.
  
  Every page is filled with phenomenal information about this crazy critter and is written in a humorous and captivating narrative. This book is unique because it doesn't tease apart the story of the beaver into chapters focused on ecology, evolution, and human-beaver interactions. Rather, Ben has weaved these components together to paint a holistic picture about beavers, illustrating the remarkably diverse interactions between this species' biology and the history of the North American landscape, both geologically and culturally. Perhaps most fascinating is the narrative Ben develops through interviewing all kinds of people from living beaver trappers, landscape managers, and academic scientists - all of whom are compelled in some way by this rodent.
  
  I've learned orders of magnitude more about beavers than I ever thought there was to know. If you're interested in American history, geology, natural history, culture, or are just a curious person - this book is for you.
• Count me among the newly minted Beaver Believers, thanks to this surprisingly accessible book about a much-misunderstood rodent. Goldfarb, in Eager, tells us relatable stories about the paddle-tailed aquatic engineers, their foes, and friends. Leave it to us humans to come to a new land, claim dominion over its flora and fauna, drive much of it to the brink of extinction, and only later recognize the impact of those brutal acts and seek to rectify them. Although Eager deals primarily with the history, contributions, plight, and attempted restoration of the Castor canadensis (and European cousin Castor fiber), the reader will be reminded of what happens when an invading species (in this case, Man) eradicates a perceived foe then is forced to live with unforeseen consequences that are far greater than the imagined threat.
  
  The author, through the use of lively storytelling based on exhaustive research, introduces us to Castor canadensis, its history here in the US and across the pond, its overhunting for English and European hats and coats, which become unfashionable after the beaver population has already been decimated, its attempts to survive only to be regarded as a varmint whose value to rivers, streams, and water is not understood well enough to shield it from farmers' and ranchers' bullets and traps. As with any good story, this one has conflict, desire, greed, altruism, sex, love, death, politics, interesting characters, and a good measure of humor. Not what you'd expect from a book about beavers, is it?
  
  I agree with environmentalist and author Bill McKibben who said of Eager, "This witty, engrossing book will be a classic from the day it is published." Eager is timely and timeless - an especially important read today as much of the world deals with drought and seeks solutions to dwindling natural resources, for which the beaver, a keystone species that supports entire biological communities, embodies tremendous potential to aid those who would vanquish it.
• I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of this pre-order, and was not disappointed once it arrived. Who knew that beavers played such a critical role in the ecosystem? Ben Goldfarb apparently did, and he conveys his knowledge in a thoroughly entertaining and informative manner. As one beaver said to the other, "Dam, it's good."