Acting as unofficial beaver secretary during this wild and glorious renaissance period is truly a full-time job. I can barely keep up with the latest news and my beaver ‘to-do’ list is getting longer and longer. Never mind, it’s a wonderful problem to have. Let’s turn our attention to the big guns where Sarah Boon yesterday reviewed Ben Goldfarb’s book for Science Magazine.
Recognizing their role in maintaining healthy watersheds, “beaver believers” work to rehab the rodent’s reputation
Why should we care about beavers? Consider all they do. Beavers convert vegetation to marsh to wetland and back again. They facilitate water storage in ponds and recharge groundwater. Ponds and meadows sculpted by beavers concentrate nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Not only does this create fertile ground, it helps filter agricultural runoff. Beaver-dammed landscapes create habitats for other species, and their complexes can serve as wildfire breaks.
B
eavers still face obstacles when we attempt to reintroduce them into ecosystems in which they once flourished. Predators can eat a beaver for lunch, while cattle grazing removes vegetation and can alter a stream’s configuration in such a way that it can no longer support beaver populations.
Eager also highlights the problems of preconceived assumptions about beavers and beaver management. A common supposition among fish ecologists, for example, is that beavers are bad for salmon because their dams prevent the fish from swimming upstream. However, Goldfarb cites a comprehensive review of 108 papers that showed that beavers benefit fish populations more often than they cause negative consequences.
We’re coming to my FAVORITE part. Pay close attention.
A more egregious error occurred in California in 1937, when ecologist Joseph Grinnell declared that beavers had never inhabited large portions of the state. Although this was untrue, it went unchallenged and affected beaver recovery and ecosystem management across the state until it was disproven in 2012.
DISPROVEN! DISPROVEN! I can’t tell you how joyful it makes my heart to read those words in Science-frickin-magazine of all places! I love the idea that we changed the accepted lore about beavers forever and ever. So that our painstaking findings and hours pouring over microfilm archives just get casually tossed out in the middle of this article like saying ‘it turns out the earth isn’t flat’.
I have a second favorite part. I admit. It’s here.
Goldfarb speaks largely with “beaver believers”—individuals who try to help humans and beavers coexist by mitigating the impact of beavers on the built landscape and by reintroducing them into stream systems that they can potentially restore. He lets his interviewees tell the majority of the story, recalling, for example, Councilman Mark Ross’s interaction with a local businessman during a tense meeting of pro- and anti-beaver groups in Martinez, California (“‘This seventy-year-old guy is about to hit me! …Do I hit back against a senior citizen or not?’”)
hahahahahahahahahahaha Martinez infighting in science magazine! Is there anything more lovely to behold? I rushed straight to the mailbox to look for my thank you note from the mayor, but I’m sure it just got delayed. Because honestly, what city wouldn’t be proud to be included?
Goldfarb ends the book with a trip to the United Kingdom, where beavers haven’t been seen since the 17th (Scotland) and late 18th (England) centuries. Here, reintroduced beavers are a huge tourist draw, and beaver dams reduce the impacts of flooding—a big problem in the UK—although many farmers aren’t convinced. As Goldfarb writes, “Everyone shares a goal; no one agrees on strategy.”
One thing Eager was missing was a visit to Canada. The beaver is the country’s national animal and graces its nickel coin. Canada has acres of landscape shaped by beavers, and Goldfarb cites a number of Canadian studies, but a firsthand experience would surely have enriched his otherwise excellent story.
I’m highlighting the last paragraph in a horrible color because that’s just plain stupid. It’s that thing teachers do when they have nothing bad whatsoever to say about your work but they want to act like they’re doing their job so they give you stupid irrelevant advice along with your well-earned praise. Obviously there have been VOLUMES about beavers in Canada, most recently by Frances Backhouse and before that by Glynnis Hood. It is wonderful for Ben to cover the story from an un-canada-centric perspective for a change.
And this is a GREAT review, in a gut punch location. I heard from the publisher that he’s going to be reviewed in the Washington Post sunday, and I just found out he is going to be on local radio KPFA on Friday.
With me too! So buckle up!
