The people of The Beaver State should know more about their official animal than anybody else. Alas, the years of trapping and hunting beavers for their fur reduced their numbers in Oregon greatly... and changed the landscape in the process.
Without beavers building all those dams to hold water for the dry months, things look different. We get a full beginner course in understanding the behaviors and benefits of beavers in Ben Goldfarb's book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.
We return to our interview from 2018.