The Russian River has been flooded for several days now, and it just keeps raining on our friends in the North. The Napa beaver pond is flooded under several feet of water and their lodge isn’t visible anymore if it’s standing at all. One of Worth A Dam’s most gracious and courageous members evacuated from the house her grandparents built on the river whose lower story is now underwater. The level was supposed to crest at their doorstep last night. My own sister in Forestville is sequestered on an island, cut off from the road and all civilization until dryer days. Last night I thought of the old saying
Nothing is a soft as water,
But who can withstand the raging flood?
Tulocay Creek yesterday: Rusty Cohn
Fingers crossed the waters recede today and everyone survives to pick through the mud and start over again. Of course beavers will be fine in their watery world, but we as usual will have a much harder time.
They say there is no great loss without some small gain, and it’s not small at all that Ben Goldfarb’s book “Eager” won the Pen award for outstanding science writing last night.
Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards have honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature across diverse genres, including fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, sports writing, biography, children’s literature, and drama. With the help of our partners, PEN America confers over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants and prizes each year, awarding nearly $370,000 to writers and translators.
Aside from being good news to beavers, it is great news for Ben, who will take home a tidy prize of sum as a result.
Congratulations Ben! We beaver lovers knew from the very start that you’d make the right kind of waves. Here’s hoping that this award makes MORE people read your book and MORE people understand beavers. Here he is accepting the award in New, York New York.
So I was thinking yesterday that it had been a while since I saw any news about EAGER, and wondering if all the buzz was finally dying down. Then i did a google search and happened to be about two hours behind the publication of this story.
Whether you are giving gifts to others or to yourself, this list of the best popular science books of 2018 about climate change, conservation and the environment is a great place to start reading and gifting
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb
Before white settlers arrived in North America, the continent was home to millions of beavers. Thanks to these industrious rodents’ activities, the landscape was covered in an intertwined system of streams and wetlands that resembled a “bowl of spaghetti”, making the land much wetter than it is today. After white settlers arrived, beavers almost disappeared because their fur was intensely popular for making hats for English gentlemen. But beavers are a keystone species whose presence supports entire biological communities, so the dramatic reduction of these animals resulted in the loss of many critically important habitats. Additionally, the loss of beavers’ “ecosystem services” affected humans too by reducing groundwater retention, thereby increasing the frequency and severity of floods, droughts, erosion and wildfires, and intensifying the effects of climate change. In this impassioned and educational book, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb highlights the ecological importance of beavers, shares important facts about their natural history, and corrects persistent misconceptions about them. He also interviews a variety of experts, ranging from scientists and environmentalists to ranchers and citizen scientists, and shares scientific arguments espousing the restoration of the beaver to its ancestral lands. Includes lots of useful references.
“Written with clarity, intelligence, and humor, this engaging book will appeal to basically everyone.”
Wow! Forbes magazine! Congratulations Ben, I knew your wonderful book was going to take beavers many interesting places but i never thought it would take them to Forbes! We especially love that last sentence of the review and couldn’t agree more. “Written with clarity, intelligence and humor”. So true!
And beavers, don’t forget the beavers.
i was also surprised to see that our old friend Phys.org forgot to mention how important beavers were for the problem they discussed yesterday. When there’s an obvious solution you should say so, don’t you think?
Pacific salmon are one of Canada’s iconic creatures. Each summer, they complete their, on average, four- to five-year-long life cycle by returning from their rich ocean feeding grounds to the creeks and streams where they were born. Here, following in the “footsteps” of their parents, they will lay eggs, die and give rise to the next generation of salmon.
For our research on the migration and conservation of Pacific salmon, we have looked at how freshwater ecosystems—lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands—are changing around the globe. Society has its finger on the pulse of the oceans, but what about our too often forgotten fresh waters?
While fresh waters make up just a fraction (0.01 per cent) of all the water on the planet, they are home to nearly 10 per cent of the Earth’s known animal species, including one third of all vertebrates (anything with a backbone). There are even more species of fish in freshwater ecosystems than there are in the ocean.
This picture is, sadly, changing quickly. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently published the “Living Planet Report 2018,” showing that freshwater species loss is more severe than species declines on land or in the ocean.
Alarmingly, populations of freshwater species on average have declined by more than 80 per cent in 50 years, while populations of land-dwellers and ocean creatures have fallen by less than half that.
Gulp. That’s a huge loss for salmon and trout, frog, otter and herons. if only there were SOME animal that worked tirelessly to make freshwater wetlands that more animals can use. I’m scratching my head here. It’ll come to me in a moment. It’s right on the tip of my tongue.
But the solution does not rest solely with technological advancements to reverse past errors. We need to meet the freshwater needs of both people and nature by changing the way we treat fresh waters, for example, through our day-to-day actions, by joining or supporting the Alliance for Freshwater Life and pressing our governments to join the global effort to preserve freshwater.
I listened to it yesterday and it’s not a terrible interview. The sound quality isn’t the best but other than the perryweather from marin and the GIVE a dam it covers fairly relevant ground in a focused way. Feel free to harken if you’re curious. I remembered yesterday that Worth A Dam donated 500 dollars to the Wildlife Services suit over beavers and salmon, so basically I paid to be called the wrong name if you think about it.
Tom says WS hasn’t even responded to the threat of suit because of the government shutdown. Which is just another way that it stinks.
Well, I guess Ben Goldfarb has really arrived because his book is on the Daily Kos now.! From Washington to National Geographic to liberal enclave and everywhere in between apparently. Now if only there were a book review in Oklahoma.
These facts and many more are assembled in Ben Goldfarb’s important and entertaining book, Eager the Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. (The title is under-punctuated.) Beavers matter because they are a keystone species, one that can “support an entire biological community.” Goldfarb paints a portrait of North America before European settlement, in which the very land forms are unfamiliar to us because beavers once engineered wetlands from sea to shining sea. The simple streams we are accustomed to have replaced complex and ever-changing webs and chains of dams, ponds, and meadows, that held back water, recharged aquifers, and provided habitat for boundless life.
Here are some uses by wildlife: ducks nest in grasses at pond fringes and songbirds in coppiced willows, swans nest atop lodges, other birds nest in snags created by drowned trees. Turtles and lizards are more abundant near beaver ponds, fish communities are more diverse near beaver dams, minks and raccoons hunt crawdads and snakes in beaver complexes, northern leopard frogs breed in beaver ponds, aquatic insects shelter in the nooks and crannies of dams and lodges, and moose eat the wetland plants that colonize beaver ponds. Plant species are increased by one third in beaver zones. Whew! Compare that to depauperate streams in arid country that dry out every year or surging rivers that erode their beds down to rock, both because there are no beaver dams upstream to regulate flow.
The review is written by “Pandala” in fairly glowing terms and centers on the idea that beavers bring a lot of good things with them that we happen to need right now. The author ends with ” I hope that this book will circulate widely, provoke a lively discussion, and result in more tolerance and sympathy for the most industrious rodent.”
US TOO!
Now I have to make time for a cheerful and hardy GOOD LUCK to my partner of 34 years who has was inspired to finally take the steps to turn in his passport and become an American. Yesterday we found out that his citizenship test is in San Francisco on February 1st. So this is patriotismmonth, baby and don’t come by the house unless you’re prepared to answer some questions!
If there were a single newspaper I trusted to cover beavers kindly it would be Vermont’s Brattleboro Reformer. They have dedicated beaver fans writing for them like Patti Smith, and even when they write about difficult beaver problems they are sure to include a positive voice.
On Tuesday evening I set off on skis to bring New Year’s tidings to my friends, Dew and Charley, at a remote pond. Those of you at lower elevations may be surprised to learn that there is still enough snow for skiing in Marlboro. The storm that delivered this bounty dropped the densest snowfall I can remember, ripping down branches, trees and powerlines. As I clambered through downed treetops in the topsy-turvy forest, I found myself visited by gloomy visions of future weird storms and the warm wet winters climate change will bring.
Fallen trees were not the only obstacles. Halfway there a new stream blocked my usual route to the pond. When the beavers relocated during the summer, their new dam shifted the stream into this new, more easterly drainage basin. This obstruction provoked no gloomy thoughts. I had just finished reading Ben Goldfarb’s book, “Eager: the Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why they Matter,” so I applauded the beavers’ contribution to the complexity of the stream system. In “Eager,” Ben writes vividly of the influence of beavers on the precolonial North American landscape. He describes a land of spongy, messy, complex waterways teeming with fish and wildlife. Because beavers were trapped out before European settlers began domesticating the wilderness, most landscape histories fail to imagine the richness of a beavered continent. I imagined such a primal place as I picked my way along the new flow to the pond.
Oh my goodness. All my favorite things in one place. How is this possible? I better drink some coffee slowly and savor this moment. I advise you to do the same. Patti Smith is writing about Eager!
I brought Ben out to meet Dew and Charley when he was in Vermont interviewing Skip Lisle for the book. Skip is a beaver habitat evangelist and has dedicated his career to developing solutions to beaver/human conflicts. Skip suggested Ben might like to meet my beavers while he was in the area, so the three of us met up one evening and hiked out to the pond. When we arrived, Dew, the matriarch, swam over to enjoy the apples we brought for her. The yearling, Charley, arrived a bit later, making his endearing squeak-whine greetings. We humans admired these two fine rodents and talked of the good works of beavers and the trials they face. We only got a little lost on the way home. I hope Ben’s wife forgave him for getting home so late.
Ahh again with the idyllic. So lovely to read. Such a charming way to understand beavers. I first read about Patti way back in 2011. Patti took the reporter on an a lovely expedition which she described thusly
As we walk, Patti and Luanne look for carnivorous sundew plants. Patti, who spends about two weeks camping near the beavers each summer, moves easily, sees the small treasures of the wetlands quickly, yet she lets her visitors make their discoveries in their own time. It is clear that, just as she visits the beaver’s house, we are in her house, and she is a gracious host.
Hearing her idyllic experience led me to contrast my own. I had to offer a rendition with some of the writing I remember most fondly on this website in over a decade, Here is my Martinez parody;
As we walk, Heidi and Cheryl look for carnivorous homeless while Jon stuffs the most noxious trash furtively into a plastic bag. No hypodermic needles tonight, and there is a feeling of cheer among the crowd to notice that there are three whole trees the city hasn’t yet vindictively trimmed into oblivion. A fight breaks out in the brew pub and the argument is briefly reflected on the water in a patch of rainbow oil. As the sun begins to set the wind stirs the smell of stale urine from beneath the bridges and raccoons emerge to pick through containers of abandoned cat food.
Ahhh I don’t mean to boast but I love that paragraph dearly. It brings back SO many memories of urban beaver watching. One time a homeless couple walked right by me and commented “She just sits here every morning, looking at the creek. Just talking to god.” I realized in that moment I had become a kind of ‘beaver shopping bag lady’. Whose quirky habits were even recognized by the homeless. HA! When I wrote the above paragraph I added at the time that it was too much fun and I had to stop myself. It was true. Even now I’m tempted to add a line.
No. Let’s just stick with Patti.
The changes we humans impose on this good planet cause irrevocable damage to its life-generating and -sustaining capacities. The changes beavers make enrich habitat for countless other species and mitigate the damage we cause. Which species has the higher claim to a disputed site? I know who I’d vote for. If you read “Eager,” I think you’ll agree.
The Russian River has been flooded for several days now, and it just keeps raining on our friends in the North. The Napa beaver pond is flooded under several feet of water and their lodge isn’t visible anymore if it’s standing at all. One of Worth A Dam’s most gracious and courageous members evacuated from the house her grandparents built on the river whose lower story is now underwater. The level was supposed to crest at their doorstep last night. My own sister in Forestville is sequestered on an island, cut off from the road and all civilization until dryer days. Last night I thought of the old saying
They say there is no great loss without some small gain, and it’s not small at all that Ben Goldfarb’s book “Eager” won the Pen award for outstanding science writing last night.
While fresh waters make up just a fraction (
I listened to it yesterday and it’s not a terrible interview. The sound quality isn’t the best but other than the perryweather from marin and the GIVE a dam it covers fairly relevant ground in a focused way. Feel free to harken if you’re curious. I remembered yesterday that Worth A Dam donated 500 dollars to the Wildlife Services suit over beavers and salmon, so basically I paid to be called the wrong name if you think about it.
