Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, reviewed

Why beavers are far more helpful to our planet than we realise. An entertaining and interesting read by Ben Goldfarb. You can buy the book here.

Eager The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, reviewed

This is an enjoyable read, and also important as Goldfarb looks to bust various myths about beavers and what they do and don’t do. Goldfarb travels all across the United States, and even to the UK too, to learn more about beavers and the various locations where they have settled and impacted on the environment. The impressive thing is just how much beavers can affect a landscape, positively in terms of flood management, and encouraging and promoting a wider ecology.

The book is thorough and well research, but also remains readable and accessible for the general reader. Goldfarb has put his time in diligently and explains

well the history of beavers, and their near extinction once the US was heavily colonised in the 18th centuries and beyond. In many areas beaver were driven to near or total wipe out, but, thankfully they have also managed to reintroduce themselves, not yet anywhere close to the level that they previously were, but still enough to begin to make positive impacts on the landscape again.

It is a great story, well explained, and we look forward to having the author on our podcast next week.

Our first @YellowstoneNPS winter trip, and it's astonishing how much more wildlife you see when the weather forces everyone down into the valleys (and when the park doesn't resemble Disneyworld). pic.twitter.com/eHflZegyKh

— Ben Goldfarb (@ben_a_goldfarb) February 16, 2021

Book blurb information ->

WINNER of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

Washington Post “50 Notable Works of Nonfiction”

Science News “Favorite Science Books of 2018”

Booklist “Top Ten Science/Technology Book of 2018”

“A marvelously humor-laced page-turner about the science of semi-aquatic rodents…. A masterpiece of a treatise on the natural world.”—The Washington Post

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. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. 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.

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. Ultimately, it’s about how we can learn to coexist, harmoniously and even beneficially, with our fellow travelers on this planet.

Live in Devon? Interested in beavers? Don't miss this…Ben Goldfarb speaking on 'The return of the beaver – why does it matter?' Mon 2 June. Free tickets available now https://t.co/ieLW5KScIo #beavers pic.twitter.com/UiQpfUbON3

— Devon Wildlife Trust (@DevonWildlife) April 17, 2019

See more stories here.

I've always found the Puget Sound watershed awesome, in the word's original sense, for this reason: Where else do spectacular wildlife migrations still intersect with dense human settlement? https://t.co/yabyeRnL88 pic.twitter.com/2VpRlQYZdb

— Ben Goldfarb (@ben_a_goldfarb) February 2, 2021