Nature didn’t know how to take care of itself before masses of Europeans invaded North America (read that as sarcasm). Let’s face it only humans know how to manage watercourses. In that, we remove or kill beavers because they keep messing with our perception of how rivers and streams should flow. The author, Ben Goldfarb, does a great job documenting how humans are our worst enemies. The dams are also useful during salmon and steelhead spawning runs as the fish congregate downstream of the dams.Īlthough I was skeptical of this book at first, for some reason, I picked up a copy.īecause the book is a mesmerizing and thorough investigation of why beavers are a true keystone species.Įven though they’re often called a pain in the ass, labeled destroyers of property, vilified, and sorely misunderstood, beavers can solve many of our environmental issues. For us hunters and trappers, the dams are handy to use as bridges to cross the creeks.

Where I grew up, most of the creeks had beaver dams. Ultimately, it’s about how we can learn to coexist, harmoniously and even beneficially, with our fellow travelers on this planet.I first saw Eager The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter I thought, why would anyone want to read a thick book about beavers?Īfter all, these large rodents aren’t unfamiliar to me.

From the Nevada deserts to the Scottish highlands, Believers are now hard at work restoring these industrious rodents to their former haunts. Eager is a powerful story about one of the world’s most influential species, how North America was colonized, how our landscapes have changed over the centuries, and how beavers can help us fight drought, flooding, wildfire, extinction, and the ravages of climate change. Today, a growing coalition of “Beaver Believers”―including scientists, ranchers, and passionate citizens―recognizes that ecosystems with beavers are far healthier, for humans and non-humans alike, than those without them. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. In Eager, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America’s lakes and rivers.

Eager the secret life of beavers