BEAVERLAND: An Evening with Leila Philip
Join award-winning author Leila Philip as she discusses her acclaimed book BEAVERLAND: How One Weird Rodent Made America.
Award-winning author Leila Philip is coming to Chattanooga! Presented by the Patten Group, we are proud to host Leila as she takes you on a journey into the world of the beaver, Earth's original ecosystem engineer.
Big thanks to our sponsors, The Patten Group, the City of Chattanooga Water Quality Program, and Chattanooga Parks & Outdoors. Their support means that 100% of your registration and book purchase will go toward re-opening the boardwalk for canoeing. The boardwalk was damaged by falling ash trees killed by the emerald ash borer and has been closed for over a year. We’ve been pushing to reopen the canoe launch in time to show Leila our nearby beaver dam and pond, and we need your help!
Beavers pose an evolutionary puzzle, like the platypus, or birds, which share some DNA with dinosaurs. When they dive, they seem more like marine mammals than terrestrial species, more seal than rodent. Their dexterous forepaws look startlingly human with their five nimble fingers and naked palms. They groom their lustrous fur with catlike fastidiousness. Their mammalian beauty ends abruptly in the gooselike hind feet and their reptilian tail, which looks like it’s been run over by a tractor tire, the treads leaving a pattern of indentations that resemble scales. Part bear, part bird, part monkey, part lizard, humanoid hands, an aquatic tail. Is it any surprise that beavers have fired the human imagination?
In BEAVERLAND: How One Weird Rodent Made America, Leila Philip offers a masterful work of narrative science writing, a book that elegantly highlights, through history and contemporary storytelling, how this amazing animal has played an outsized role in American history and can play an important role in its future. She follows fur trappers who lead her through waist high water, fur traders and fur auctioneers, as well as wildlife managers, PETA activists, Native American environmental vigilantes, scientists, engineers, and the colorful group of activists known as beaver believers.
Starting at 5:30 pm, come to The Camp House for a discussion with Leila about the importance of beavers to our ecology, and how beavers impact us locally in Chattanooga. There will be light refreshments available and a book signing following the discussion. We have a limited quantity of books, so we recommend purchasing one with your ticket (it is listed as an add-on). If we have any books remaining, we will have them available at the event.
We are also hosting a VIP event on Wednesday, May 17th, on Reflection Riding's campus. Starting at 4:30 pm, we will be taking paddling trips on Lookout Creek with Leila herself to a beaver dam to see firsthand the impact of beavers in our area. Stay for a cookout of burgers and hot dogs and a nightime paddle to the dam where we might see the beavers in action. Make sure to pick that ticket add-on if interested!
We hope to see you there!
