Do you remember that kid in third grade that got the best toys and the best clothes and went to Disneyland every summer? Their family seemed to have infinite funds and their mom was always driving a new car that was so clean it twinkled when she dropped them off at school. Maybe there name was something like Susie or Biff but admit it, you hated/envied/admired them. They had everything you wanted and never had to work for it.
Well that’s how I feel about Washington state.
Pikes/Pines | Stop giggling and consider the urban beaver on the shores of Lake Washington
Beavers have a way of getting under our skin. Some people despise them, others think they are panacea, and cute as a button to boot. Beliefs and feelings often intermingle inextricably with facts, which is why I believe beavers are amazing creatures, and a landowner with a flooded yard might have different thoughts. And yet, we’re all talking about the same creature.
Now you’re reading this, thinking to yourself: “There aren’t any beavers on Capitol Hill.” On top of it, certainly you are right. However, a quick trip down to the water nearby yields obvious signs of their presence, regardless of our actually seeing a beaver.
Most importantly, beavers are keystone species, meaning that entire ecosystems are reliant on their presence or absence. For birds, plants, and fish they mean life, and luckily many an ecologist, land manager, and tribal nation have acknowledged this in their work more and more often these days.
It isn’t very often that I want to excerpt the entire article and repost it here, but this one by Brendan McGarry is nearly perfect in every way. It talks about Ben Dittbrenner’s excellent urban article and Ben Goldfarb’s excellent beaver book and hardly leaves any good stuff out.
in a 2017 paper published by Dittbrenner and colleagues titled “Reintegrating the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) in the urban landscape,” there is explicit support for beavers in the city of Seattle and other urban centers. It calls for landscape design to consider the beaver, and highlights the success of some recent projects around town. Dittbrenner said that despite the fact that they can be problematic, “there is no question that beavers are increasing diversity.” When we desperately want species like Chinook salmon in our streams, it makes sense that beavers, with their ability to create refugia for young fish and their food, should be welcomed into places like Thornton creek.
The human task is to try to figure out ways to interact that don’t require lethal trapping. From Dittbrenner’s perspective, more beavers are inevitable in urban Seattle. The question is, can we accommodate them for the ecosystem services they provide? Goldfarb’s “Eager” makes it clear as well: beavers will return. We can either waste a lot of time and money to be rid of them, or learn to coexist. I’d like to think we can find ways to get along too, because hell, I just think they’re fun.
I know which one I pick. Hell, I think they’re fun too. Go read the entire article if you want a cheerful boost to your morning. It describes how the author has been trying to photograph elusive beavers for years. As we could tell him Martinez, summer evenings is usually the best,
Of course one nice beaver article doesn’t make Washington a spoiled brat. That takes two fantastic article on the SAME exact day to earn that title.
Check It Out: Check out ‘Eager,’ join ‘beaver believers’
This is without a doubt the most persuasive book I have ever read. If you need any amount of convincing that beavers are absolutely essential (that’s right — not just essential but absolutely essential) to our planet, check out Ben Goldfarb’s book now. Informative, witty, eye-opening, “Eager” has turned me into a complete “beaver believer.” Aside from noting a beaver dam or lodge during outdoor excursions, I hadn’t given beavers much thought. The sum total of my beaver knowledge before reading this book went something along these lines: beavers have paddle-shaped tails that are good for slapping on the water; they make dams and lodges; their fur was highly prized during the fur trade; they’re good at felling trees; and around here a “beaver fanatic” equals an avid college football fan not a lover of rodents. Now that Goldfarb’s ode to the Castor (that’s the genus of this species) has expanded my castorid awareness, don’t be surprised if I go all fangirl at my next beaver dam sighting. Squee!
The most persuasive book you’ve ever read. That’s quite an opening line. What a compliment! Ben will think of course its his considerable prowess with the pen that is so convincing, but you and i know better. It’s the subject matter of course. When he knocks off his next book about Capybaras or road ecology people will like it but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that no one will call it the MOST CONVINCING BOOK they ever read, It’s the beavers themselves that are convincing.
Learning about beavers and their habitat has never been so delightful. While “Eager,” the winner of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, is full of scientific information, not once did I feel book-weary with facts and stats. Goldfarb turns what could be a dry treatise on science and nature into a fascinating and charming account about our tree-gnawing neighbors. When Goldfarb interviews a biologist and the conversation turns to predators of the beaver, specifically the grizzly bear, the biologist says that in the grizz’s eyes the beaver is a “fat, slow, smelly meat package” — descriptive and accurate. Did you know that a select group of castorids sky-dived their way into a new habitat thanks to a special beaver named Geronimo? Oh, I could go on and on about these paddle-tailed wonders, but I’ll stop because what I really want to you to do is read “Eager,” and become a “beaver believer” like me.
By all means, go read the book! And thank you Jan johnston, for the excellent review. More people should read Eager I agree, but maybe not more people in Washington state. I think of beaver wisdom in the western states as a kind of raft floating over the sea of ignorance that runs through our nation. A lot of smart people are already piled up on the Washington corner. The whole thing is starting to tip to one side. What we need is smart beaver minds spread equally across the states.
