The First Beaver

A story about trust between parents and children and the importance of being true to oneself.

“Unexpectedly delightful reading—there is much to learn from the buck-toothed rodents of yore” (National Post). Beavers, those icons of industriousness, have been gnawing down trees, building dams, shaping the land, and creating critical habitat in North America for at least a million years. Once one of the continent’s most ubiquitous mammals, they ranged from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande to the edge of the northern tundra. Wherever there was wood and water, there were beavers—sixty million, or more—and wherever there were beavers, there were intricate natural communities that depended on their activities. Then the European fur traders arrived. Once They Were Hats examines humanity’s fifteen-thousand–year relationship with Castor canadensis, and the beaver’s even older relationship with North American landscapes and ecosystems. From the waterlogged environs of the Beaver Capital of Canada to the wilderness cabin that controversial conservationist Grey Owl shared with pet beavers; from a bustling workshop where craftsmen make beaver-felt cowboy hats using century-old tools to a tidal marsh where an almost-lost link between beavers and salmon was recently found, it’s a journey of discovery to find out what happened after we nearly wiped this essential animal off the map, and how we can learn to live with beavers now that they’re returning. “Fascinating and smartly written.” —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

A story about trust between parents and children and the importance of being true to oneself.

A boy patiently listens to his mother’s reasons for not making bannock—all the result of a beaver’s need to make a dam. Includes a bannock recipe!

Introduces the physical characteristics, habits, and natural environment of the North American beaver.

Beavers can and do dramatically change the landscape. The beaver is a keystone species—their skills as foresters and engineers create and maintain ponds and wetlands that increase biodiversity, purify water, and prevent large-scale flooding. Biologists have long studied their daily and seasonal routines, family structures, and dispersal patterns. As human development encroaches into formerly wild areas, property owners and government authorities need new, nonlethal strategies for dealing with so-called nuisance beavers. At the same time, the complex behavior of beavers intrigues visitors at parks and other wildlife viewing sites because it is relatively easy to observe. In an up-to-date, exhaustively illustrated, and comprehensive book on beaver biology and management, Dietland Müller-Schwarze gathers a wealth of scientific knowledge about both the North American and Eurasian beaver species. The Beaver is designed to satisfy the curiosity and answer the questions of anyone with an interest in these animals, from students who enjoy watching beaver ponds at nature centers to homeowners who hope to protect their landscaping. Photographs taken by the authors document every aspect of beaver behavior and biology, the variety of their constructions, and the habitats that depend on their presence. Beaver facts: •Just as individual beavers shape their immediate surroundings, so did the distribution of beavers across North America influence the paths of English and French explorers and traders. As a result of the fur trade, beavers were wiped out across large areas of the United States. Reintroduction efforts led to the widespread establishment of these resilient animals, and now they are found throughout North America, Europe, and parts of the southern hemisphere. •Beaver meadows provided early settlers with level, fertile pastures and hayfields. •Based on the fossil record, the smallest extinct beaver species were the size of a muskrat, and the largest may have reached the size of a black bear (five to six times as large as today's North American beavers). Beaver-gnawed wood has been found alongside the skeleton of a mastodon. •Some beavers remain in the home lodge for an extra year to assist their parents in raising younger siblings. They feed, groom, and guard the newborn kits. •In 1600, beaver ponds covered eleven percent of the upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers' watershed above Thebes, Illinois. Restoring only 3 percent of the original wetlands might suffice to prevent catastrophic floods such as those in the early 1990s.

Beavers are the great comeback story--a keystone species that survived ice ages, major droughts, the fur trade, urbanization and near extinction. Their ability to create and maintain aquatic habitats has endeared them to conservationists, but puts the beavers at odds with urban and industrial expansion. These conflicts reflect a dichotomy within our national identity. We place environment and our concept of wilderness as a key touchstone for promotion and celebration, while devoting significant financial and personal resources to combating "the beaver problem." We need to rethink our approach to environmental conflict in general, and our approach to species-specific conflicts in particular. Our history often celebrates our integration of environment into our identity, but our actions often reveal an exploitation of environment and celebration of its subjugation. Why the conflict with the beaver? It is one of the few species that refuses to play by our rules and continues to modify environments to meet its own needs and the betterment of so many other species, while at the same time showing humans that complete dominion over nature is not necessarily achievable.

The launch of a new series that offers a delightfully informative, laugh-out-loud look at the most unsuspecting of animal heroes. This first book explores all the things that make beavers extraordinary. Full color.