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    Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
    Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
    Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
    Audiobook11 hours

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

    Written by Ben Goldfarb

    Narrated by Will Damron

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChelsea Green Publishing
    Release dateJun 14, 2018
    ISBN9781603588386
    Author

    Ben Goldfarb

    Ben Goldfarb is an award-winning environmental journalist who covers wildlife conservation, marine science, and public lands management, as well as an accomplished fiction writer. His work has been featured in Science, Mother Jones, The Guardian, High Country News, VICE, Audubon Magazine, Modern Farmer, Orion, World Wildlife Magazine, Scientific American, Yale Environment 360, and many other publications. He holds a master of environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and is a 2018 North American Congress for Conservation Biology journalist fellow.

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    Reviews for Eager

    4.5/5

    133 ratings15 reviews

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    • 5/5
      What a wonderful book filled with great examples of under looked under appreciated truths about beavers. This book will stay in my library for many years to come
    • 5/5
      So engaging and well written, highly recommend. Incredible book indeed
    • 5/5
      Really interesting and well written book. Enough facts to be interesting and well written enough to entertain the non-scientist.
    • 5/5
      amazing book with lots of information to seriously think about. great for citizen scientists, conservation agents, landowners or anyone interested in natural history.
    • 5/5
      thank you so much for this amazing book. I learned so much about the interconnectedness between beavers and other species and nature. Love that their are beaver believers out there.
    • 4/5
      Ecosystems are important to know about, as are all systems. Goldfarb's stories really tell how one animal, one part of an ecosystem can make all the difference in the world.My country's geography would now be much different, and better, if not for the historical slaughter of beavers. I give credit to everyone working to restore beaver habitat.
    • 3/5
      I just finished Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers by Ben Goldfarb is about wildlife. I was going to purchase this but decided to take it from the library instead. I didn't feel guilty though; I made other purchases of books not readily available.

      To my surprise one of my cousin's wives also read it and loved it. There's a reason I'm only giving it a three or four, despite my delight and enjoyment. Books such as Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers by Ben Goldfarb and Wolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolves by Brenda Peterson have a tendency to over-make their case for the author's chosen animal. Someone could make a case, I suppose, that the flounder, or more realistically another mammal, let's say the horse, was or is the most important non-human animal and build a convincing case. I should know; I'm a lawyer and build cases for a living. Like Wolf Nation books of this genre, to quote myself, are "a bit ideologically driven for my tastes." I am very much a lover of the outdoors. Pounding the table in making an argument doesn't sway me.

      Still, I join my cousin, a teacher who majored in limnology, or the study of fresh water habitats, in highly recommending this book.
    • 5/5
      A well-researched exploration of the history of human interactions with beavers, from their almost-eradication in the 1700s to current and future efforts to reestablish them in both North America and Europe and the benefits of doing so.This book is much more about what beavers can do for humans and the environment than about the life or biology of beavers themselves. Which is fine! It takes all kinds of perspectives. I particularly appreciated that the book got into really specific details about current scientists and companies that are working on reintroducing beavers and reducing the negative impacts on humans. It’s great reporting.
    • 4/5
      This wasn't really what I thought, but I still liked the book. As the title suggests, this is about beavers and why the matter to the ecosystem. It has science in the book, but it's written more like something you'd read in a National Geographic. I will say this book changed my opinion on beavers.
    • 4/5
      Beavers are important!  That is the message that you will get repeatedly while reading this book, although author Ben Goldfarb does not skimp on providing detailed evidence behind his thesis.  What we learn from reading this book is that the beaver's most identifiable trait, building dams on rivers and streams, has a profound effect on the landscape.  When beavers were hunted for their pelts in colonial times it lead to the loss of beaver-facilitated habitats for numerous fauna and flora.Daming also helps in preserving groundwater and preventing flooding and runoff as some farmers and ranchers have learned where managed beaver populations have been reintroduced.  Unfortunately, the benefits on the macro level can be damaging on the micro level, causing local flooding and damage despite being better for the region overall.  This contributes to the beaver being seen as a nuisance animals and extermination policies of many local governments.  Goldfarb documents the efforts of ecologists and scientists to convince people to learn to live with beavers.  It's a very interesting and fact-filled book and definitely gave me new respect for the beaver!
    • 4/5
      Buffalo. Wolves. Cougars. And now beavers. Enter the world of re-wilding. To do this requires scientific and public support. The later is most important, politically, and that is where books come in for education and advocacy. Eager is a defense of the beaver and you will finish it convinced we need more beavers, lots more. It's not a threatened species, but the natural services it provides are immense and not widely known. Primarily because it is the dams and wetlands that restore rivers, fish, flood control and water aquifers. The beaver is a keystone species. They are so effective, people are selling fake beaver dams. Nevertheless, old biases still exist and many consider beavers a pest to be trapped and controlled. Thus there are beaver advocacy groups and beaver wars at county and state levels. One of the most backwards states is California because water is so limited they don't see a place for beavers at the table, even though beavers have a net positive effect. Other countries like Scotland are seeing beavers reintroduced for the first time in 400 years, while a German man has been replanting beavers in countries all over the world. None of this goes easily, and most places remain hostile to the beaver. One behind my house was trapped and disappeared not long ago. This book has made me into a beaver believer.
    • 4/5
      Pop-up discussion book. Learned a ton. Lots of history and lots of interesting details. Bring the little guys back in force -- we NEED them! thank goodness for scientists/authors like Goldfarb
    • 5/5
      One of the best natural history books I've read in a while! Very entertaining. Goldfarb uses homely analogies to help us get into what's going on with beavers. "Imagine briefly that you're a beaver--a dispersing two-year-old male, say. You've recently departed your lodge, supplanted by newborn siblings who have become the apples of your parents' beady black eyes. You're house hunting. You have to find deep water or build a dam soon--you can smell the funk of nearby black bears--but the best homes are taken..." (p.73)"There was one spot, up by Cody, where it was like ringing the grizzly bear dinner bell...A beaver is just a fat, slow, smelly package of meat." (p.88)
      Replete with accounts of tagging along with people who work with beavers, and learning with them: How do you tell what gender a beaver is, with no visible differences? You smell their anal secretions: "A hint of motor oil means a male... A whiff of old cheese indicated a female" (p.93)References are packed into 20 pages of notes at the end, followed by an index. Both of which will help as you, inevitably, become converted and want to convince your local flooding stream control agency to start using beavers as the best control method around.
    • 5/5
      This is my star non-fiction book of 2018. My words of praise do not do justice to this fantastic book. It turns what might have been a dry scientific tome into an exciting account of the fall and rise of the beaver. Moreover it is very witty. I intend to recommend it to many friends
    • 4/5
      A detailed account of the beaver's key role in waterway ecology.The beaver is an animal that most people, regardless of where they live in the world, know about. But how much do people actually know about this industrious little creature? This book is an eye-opening discussion on the crucial ecological importance beavers play. Misconceptions about these charismatic rodents mean they are frequently the object of misplaced animosity, and within these pages you will find the truth and how a change in perception would benefit the environment, and the humans who use or visit it.The author's enthusiasm in championing beavers is obvious, but he presents his evidence without bullying you into thinking his way. Instead you are lead along a path (or perhaps a hiking trail?) where the scenery does all the talking and convincing.Far from a dry read, this is often as much about connection and emotion as it is beavers. Although obviously targeted at a North American audience, anyone with an interest in ecology and/or beavers will find this an interesting read.Copy received from NetGalley.