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Busy Chewing Up the Scenery to Make a New Environment for Others

10/8/2019

 
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Meet an amazing animal that is doing its share to save the planet.  It's a rodent-- the "dent" part of its name refers to its teeth, which it uses  to gnaw down trees.  So how does that help save the planet?  The answer is in Dorothy Hinshaw Patent's latest book At Home with the Beaver: the Story of a Keystone Species.  She tells the story with gusto and her text works seamlessly with Michael Runtz's photos that add clarity, close-ups and time-stopping images worthy of intense scrutiny.

The beaver must chew wood-- something hard-- to keep its ever-growing front teeth short.  It uses its felled product to build.  It alters the landscape with its dams that stop creeks effectively enough to form ponds that become a new environment for many other species of plants, fish, frogs, insects, birds.  The pond becomes a food chain that would not exist but for the beaver. Since the beaver is the key to a new environment it is dubbed a "keystone" species.  The original keystone is the wedge-shaped stone in the top center of a stone arch that keeps all the other stones in place, making the arch possible, even without mortar.  
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This keystone is carved but it still makes the arch of this bridge stable and possible-Wikimedia commons
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The beaver's home is less asthetic but does the job. From At Home with the Beaver-Michael Runtz
The web of life, the inter-dependency of species- is a complex concept that is crucial to our comprehension if we are going to make an effort to take care of our planet and the current seemingly distant threat of global warming.  Patent's book shows the uninitiated how living creatures depend on each other and on the one species that creates a space for them to thrive.

​For those who love nature and have actually visited a beaver pond, this book is a way to introduce an amazing habitat to their friends.  For those who have never visited a beaver pond, At Home with the Beaver can motivate them to put down their phones, and make plans to go find one for themselves.  

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     Vicki Cobb

    *Award-winning author of more than 90 nonfiction books for children, mostly in science.
    *Former Contributor to the Huffington Post
    *Founder/President of iNK Think Tank, Inc.
    *Passionate advocate for the joy of learning for every child and teacher.


    Disclaimer: All opinions, typos, and grammatical errors are my own,  especially small word omissions which I often don't notice in my fervor.  

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