Beavers are more than loggers: A fascinating look at America's curious builders of a lot more than dams

Photo by Charlie Hamilton James, National Geographic

A ‘weird rodent’ goes swimming by his head bobbing a bit as he reaches his dam. Affectionately known as the four-footed logger, this beaver and his family have changed this forest forever. . ..

In a look at wonderful bedside books for the holidays, James Fallows of Breaking News recommends an unusual pick about a quirky animal that we don’t often consider a game changer: the American beaver.

Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip shows how beavers built America as much as humankind. “The book explains their biology, their oddity, their habits, their surprisingly profound effects, their interaction with (and fate at the hands of) human beings of different eras and cultures, their role in commerce and human civilization, and more," writes Fallows. "The book is mostly narrative, from historical records and Philip’s own first-hand reporting."

Beavers are part of the native fauna of North America, but they have a unique set of gifts that other animals do not have. Beavers fell trees and rebuild their environments much the way humans do. In this excerpt below Philip makes her case that beavers are 'forest Shiva': "Beavers are a keystone species, an organism so critical to the survival of a biological community that they function like the keystone in a medieval archway… Many animals use tools and are important to biodiversity, but only beavers and humans dramatically alter the landscape to create the environment they need (or want).

"Beavers need water, so they cut down trees and flood forests to create ponds. In doing so, they kill trees but create new habitat for hundreds of animal species that rely on those new waterways. Once they abandon a dam, having determined that life there is no longer manageable due to lack of food, it begins to drain and the pond grows back as meadow, then underbrush, then eventually forest, the soil enriched by years of accumulated pond rot and muck. They are forest Shiva, destroying illusion to create insight, putting into motion cycles of growth and regrowth, and creation through destruction. And today, beavers are back in many North American landscapes."

A peek at Fallows' list gives many glorious reading options, from beavers to truth about love.