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Philips follows a river geologist in exploring the ways that beavers change river systems. She follows people whose business it is to deal with “nuisance” beavers, who are flooding people’s houses and yards. It isn’t always necessary to remove the animals. A “pond leveler” can be installed, which allows the height of the pond to be controlled, without driving the beavers out. The subtitle is inaccurate: the beaver was important in the history of Canada and the USA, but not of Greenland, Latin America or the Caribbean, so just part of America, which is a continent (or 2) not a country. If you like reading about conservationists and people who try to protect natural habitats and animals, you might like this book.
Growing up in Wisconsin, I had quite a bit of exposure to beavers. My father and grand-father both were avid trappers, and I could not help but absorb the lessons and lore about beavers that they taught me. I did not follow in their footsteps, but can appreciate the lessons they taught me. As a college graduate with a degree in natural resources, and a lifetime outdoorsman and fisherman, I continue to learn about beavers. They are one of the most fascinating animals I know of.Yellowstone River, which they followed north and west' Actually it lies south of the Missouri. Wikipedia says they followed the Missouri to its headwaters and the continental divide at Lemhi pass, which suggests they ascended the Jefferson and then Braided from the Missouri - hard to get to from the Yellowstone. She explores Native American traditions surrounding the beaver. She visits some of the oldest and biggest beaver dams in the country, which can be seen by satellite. She explores the history of her home town in New England, and the conflict between the white settlers and the Indigenous peoples, and the ecological damage done by English-style agriculture.
This is an excellent popular science book about beavers, water, engineering, climate, biodiversity, and why we need beavers. Fascinating, nifty, easy to understand. Recommended."p.225 - 'Lewis...wrote the Narnia trilogy' There are 7 books in the Narnia series. Perhaps you were thinking of the Disney films based on 3 of the books, but Lewis did not write the films. I didn't believe Ben, not really. Could beavers really have been that important? But the thorough research in the first part of this book, which presents numerous quotations from early explorers of the west, leave no doubt that the number of beavers was profound and their impact widespread. And it's not just ecology that they influenced: the fur trade helped incite the American Revolution and the War of 1812, and dictated where explorers settled and founded some of the West's now-major cities. This wasn't as bad as the other books mentioned above however, as it generally did stay on topic. The only issue I have is that I've read a book that did what Philip was attempting, but much better. "Eager" is another Nonfiction book on Beavers that Philips herself even references. In my opinion Ben Goldfarb did a MUCH better job in his book of having a more coherent focus on his writing in the book and telling a more interesting story overall when describing the essentialness of Beavers in the environment. From award-winning writer Leila Philip, BEAVERLAND is a masterful work of narrative science writing, a book that highlights, though history and contemporary storytelling, how this weird rodent plays an oversized role in American history and its future. She follows fur trappers who lead her through waist high water, fur traders and fur auctioneers, as well as wildlife managers, PETA activists, Native American environmental vigilantes, scientists, engineers, and the colorful group of activists known as beaver believers .
Castoroides, an extinct beaver the size of a small bear! Part of the Pleistocene megafauna, went extinct just about 10,000 years ago. Philips wrote this book over the course of several years and I was impressed with Philip's as a nonfiction author and her quest to find out more about beaver. She had been helping her mother as her health deteriorated and to buoy her spirits she often sat by the beaver pond near her house and watched the beaver in action. Sadly one day there were no beaver and it her quest to find out what happened she began looking more deeply into their history, life and ecology:On top of all that, Ben is a really engaging writer. Entertaining, fresh, and always ready with a turn of phrase or apt vocabulary choice (several times sending me to a digital dictionary). Many animals have their inherent value, to be sure, but Goldfarb issues his proof that the ability for so many species to thrive hinge upon the ability of beavers to do what they do best, even if their efforts seem to produce nothing less than chaos and less-than-aesthetically-pleasing views of nature (I suppose that also depends on who's looking). Goldfarb writes of the beaver's integration within the history of many parts of the world (most notably North America), reminding us that the pelt trade was an important one in its time, and fueled so much of our conquest of any slab of untamed forest and stream. As the book progresses, you learn of many, many attempts to re-incorporate beavers into failing landscapes & watersheds, the installation of artificial dams meant to simulate the presence of the animals, and the struggles through which honorable proponents of beaver-kind have to navigate to simply get a fair consideration of data proving that the animal is definitely more help than hurt, which brings me to the next point... We know of the ecological value of predators. We know of the ecological value of insects. What we are learning is the ecological value of beavers. Once again I feel like I was duped into reading a book that strayed off from what it's marketing advertised. I've read several books like this, "The Library Book" and "The Dinosaur Artist" come to mind. These are books that I like to call NPR reports because like NPR segments they sort of meander from subject to subject only briefly related to one another. Rather than focusing on Beavers, for example, this book goes in depth on the history of Fur trapping in America and looks at the science of Ecology in wetlands.
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