Will I love Eager?

Ben Goldfarb’s fabulous 2018 book provided me with a huge morale boost and encouragement for volunteer work I had recently undertaken on wildlife issues at our Statehouse.

I grew up next to Preston Pond (and live there again), which had beavers living in it for almost all my life. Yet, despite that and having a degree in biology, I didn’t know a great deal about beavers until a trapper (the first since probably the 18th Century) killed the family in 2016.

I didn’t even think that trapping was a thing in Vermont. That pointless killing is what got me involved… show more.

Goldfarb’s tribute to the beaver offers a shining example of how to turn an animal’s image around. I will never think of the furry rodent with orange teeth the same again.

Beavers play countless roles in keeping ecosystems healthy. They create insect habitats, shelter endangered salmon, recharge aquifers, and strain ash out of creeks after forest fires. I gained a new appreciation for how the beaver’s engineering prowess makes river systems tick.

By carefully mixing natural history with entertaining personal encounters, Goldfarb informed me and made me laugh. These days, when I see evidence of a beaver on a walk… show more.

Long before I learned anything about their ecology, I was fascinated by beavers and their flair for building. Beaver dams change the courses of streams and create habitat for willows, fish, frogs, songbirds, even elk and wolves. Goldfarb’s book tells the story of the beavers’ destruction by fur hunters, the way their loss changed the way water flowed through all of North America, and the ways people are working to bring them back.