Eager

May 14, 2018
In this diverting volume, environmental journalist Goldfarb sings the praises of beavers, who, though “targets of a multicentury massacre” and besieged by urban sprawl, still manage to “flourish... not only in Walmart parking lots, but in stormwater ponds and golf course water hazards.” He sheds light on beaver habits and habitats in the United States, England, and Scotland, focusing on the roles they play within ecosystems and likening them to “ecological and hydrological Swiss Army knives, capable, in the right circumstances, of tackling just about any landscape-scale problem.” Chapters deal, for instance, with how beavers approach infrastructure and build dams by laying foundations with “mud, stones and sticks set perpendicular to the stream’s flow.” Goldfarb also acknowledges the mischief beavers can create, recounting the tale of a beaver who gnawed through fiber-optic cable and knocked out cell phone service in Taos, N.Mex., and a beaver “barging into a Maryland department store and rifling through its plastic-wrapped Christmas trees.” Goldfarb also calls attention to the work done by dedicated wildlife biologists, scientists, land managers, and other self-proclaimed “beaver believers” like Heidi Perryman, founder of the nonprofit Worth a Dam, a “comprehensive clearinghouse for beaver science and coexistence techniques.” These folks lend personality to an affectionate portrait of these “hardy rodents.” Illus.

June 1, 2018

Environmental journalist Goldfarb makes the case that beavers are a keystone species vital for ensuring healthy ecosystems. For example, beaver lodges have proven to be instrumental in trumpeter swan survival as they provide an elevated habitat that deters prey. Beavers can also create their own food source by damming waterways to promote both aquatic plant and fish growth. Yet, their notoriety as a nuisance species is hard to overcome, even given their important ecological role. Goldfarb introduces us to beaver advocates; environmental activists determined to reverse this negative perception; engineers who construct flow devices that enable beaver dams to coexist with human landscapes, ecologists who have uncovered the important niche the species have in ecosystems, and scientists who have unearthed evidence proving that beavers have a long history in the United States. Beginning with the early fur traders who depleted beaver populations and leading to those attempting to reverse the negative opinion about beaver's detrimental influence, this comprehensive book provides a well-rounded consideration of a frequently misunderstood species. VERDICT Even if you don't think you have an opinion on beavers, this engaging book will make you a beaver believer.--Diana Hartle, Univ. of Georgia Science Lib., Athens

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2018
Unlike a children's book that makes beavers seem like cute little dam builders, this one takes a serious look at the creatures and their critical importance to ecosystems across North America.Goldfarb, a freelance environmental journalist with a master's degree in environmental management, takes readers from the days of the fur trade, which drew trappers and then settlers across the continent and saw beavers killed by the millions, to current conservation efforts. As he reports, the disappearance of beavers altered the landscape dramatically, drying up wetlands, killing off species, fostering erosion, and changing the courses of streams. While the focus is on North American beavers, the author also offers a brief look at a sister species in Great Britain and conservation efforts there. To research this book, Goldfarb traveled widely with scientists, activists, naturalists, wildlife managers, engineers, cattle ranchers, and beaver rescuers and re-locaters, and he shares his findings in lucid and entertaining prose. Beavers, he writes in his introduction, "are ecological and hydrological Swiss Army knives, capable, in the right circumstances, of tackling just about any landscape-scale problem you might confront. Trying to mitigate floods or improve water quality? There's a beaver for that. Hoping to capture more water for agriculture in the face of climate change? Add a beaver. Concerned about sedimentation, salmon runs, wildfire? Take two families of beaver and check back in a year." The author consistently convinces readers of the truth of this assessment. It's vital, he writes, that we learn to coexist with these ecosystem engineers because they can help restore our rivers, forestall the loss of biodiversity, and reduce the damages of climate change. An eight-page photograph insert further brings beavers and their world to life.Filled with hard facts and fascinating people (and animals), this is an authoritative, vigorous call for understanding and action.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from June 1, 2018
Envision a perfect stream. Most people picture a clear, fast-moving creek with a narrow course and lots of rocks. This vision, award-winning environmental journalist Goldfarb informs us in this fresh, historically grounded look at North America's largest rodent, is wrong. Before the furpocalypse, during which trappers decimated the once enormous beaver population, streams were mostly murky swamps backed up to cover several acres by beaver-built wooden dams and dotted with beaver lodges constructed out of sticks. The disappearance of beavers severely altered watersheds and contributed to the drying of the West. After attending a conference on beaver ecology, Goldfarb became a beaver acolyte and here writes eloquently of the return of this industrious, habitat-enriching animal, its conflicts with humans and their property, and of the ways both elegant and Rube Goldbergian in which beaver and human needs can be balanced. Goldfarb traveled the country to observe researchers, beaver damage mitigators, county engineers, hydrologists, and wildlife biologists, all working with beavers and studying their positive effects on ecosystems from the western deserts to the replenishing forests of the east. Beavers are kind of magical, Goldfarb tells us: they can make wetlands appear.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)