ICONIC SPECIES RETURN: BEAVERS & BUFFALO BACK FROM THE BRINK

American buffalo were revered by Native people, but newcomers to the land considered them a hindrance to the nation’s expansion and slaughtered them by the millions. They were rescued from extinction by a motley collection of committed individuals. DAYTON DUNCAN and Ken Burns’ Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo is a story of America at its very best and worst. In Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America, LEILA PHILIP highlights how beavers play an oversized role in American history and its future. To tell the heroic animals’ great conservation story, she follows fur trappers, PETA activists, Native American environmental vigilantes, scientists, engineers, and a colorful group of activists known as “beaver believers.”

Buy Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo. – Duncan

Buy Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America. – Philip