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Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why they Matter
By Ben Goldfarb '09
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.
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.