Eager

How has your understanding of beavers changed now that you’ve read Eager? Would you know consider yourself a “Beaver Believer”?

What was your favorite beaver reintroduction story?

The subtitle of Eager informs the reader they might find the story of beavers surprising. What was the most extraordinary fact about beavers you learned?

Author Ben Goldfarb has a way of weaving facts and humor into his writing. What do you think of his writing style? Why are books like Eager important?

Goldfarb has a knack for introducing his readers to precise new words. Have you ever felt solastalgia, which refers to the pain or distress caused by the loss of a comforting place; the sense of desolation people feel, consciously or unconsciously, when their home or land is lost (p. 239)?

Is there a cause or species you are as passionate about as the “Beaver Believers” are about Castors?

What parallels are there between wolves and beavers (see chapter “Wolftopia”), or other keystone species with a cultural carrying capacity?

What are your thoughts on the conflict between beavers’ biological imperatives that bring both chaos and ecological restoration and human attempts to control the landscape?

What are your ideas about how we can better work with the inherent behaviors of species to improve habitats?

What did you think about Goldfarb’s call for the conservation of species like beavers that are not protected by the Endangered Species Act, or as J.B. McKinnon put it, “the conservation of the common”?