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.

The Daily Bucket – Beaver Deceivers and the Rodent Love Motel

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 patriotism month, baby and don’t come by the house unless you’re prepared to answer some questions!