Description

What is the Bark the Beaver book and plush set?

This is the “launch set” for Bark the Beaver Helps the Black Hills Thrive, a picture book the Black Hills Parks & Forests Association (BHPFA) produced with the Black Hills Area Community Foundation (BHACF) to commemorate BHPFA’s 80th anniversary and BHACF’s 20th. The set bundles the book with the matching Bark plush, so kids can hold the character while they read about her.

Story by Eric Zimmer, a Rapid City historian and the VP of Philanthropy at BHACF. Illustrations by Ellen Devine, an artist and designer in Anchorage, Alaska, who volunteered her artwork for this book as a gift to the Black Hills community.

Produced exclusively by BHPFA/BHACF. You won’t find it on Amazon or in chain bookstores. It is sold through BHPFA’s online store, BHPFA-operated visitor centers at our partner sites, and a small number of local bookstores in the Black Hills region.

What’s included

• Bark the Beaver Helps the Black Hills Thrive softcover picture book, 27 pages, BHPFA + Devine Creative Co., first edition April 2026.
• Bark the Beaver 12″ plush by The Petting Zoo (Wild Onez series), polyester fabric and fill made from recycled water bottles, with the yellow tail stripes from the book, ages 3+.

The story

Bark starts out along Rapid Creek, in the middle of Rapid City, doing what beavers do. “Chomp, drag, build!” One night, a road-painting truck rolls right over her tail and leaves her with two bright yellow stripes. The next time a family spots her on the creek, the dad calls a ranger, who decides Bark needs more room to work. The ranger crates her up and drops her at the Willow Creek Trail on the edge of the Black Elk Wilderness.

Bark gets to work. Years pass. Her dams slow the water, raise the water table, and bring back the wildflowers, the trout, and a whole list of new neighbors: a family of deer, a fox, three raccoons, and even a woodpecker. When the same family hikes back through years later, the kids spot her again by her still-yellow tail. Mom looks around at what the creek has become and says, “This is such a perfect place.” Bark, of course, knows exactly why.

The book is a kid-sized version of a real lesson: when a beaver dams a Black Hills creek, the wetland she builds restores the land and water around her. That is why rangers in the Black Hills National Forest, the National Park Service, and state wildlife agencies treat beavers as a restoration tool, not a nuisance.

About the plush

Bark herself comes from The Petting Zoo’s Wild Onez series, which makes its plush bodies and fill from recycled plastic bottles. Each Wild Onez plush keeps about 17 bottles out of the landfill. The Petting Zoo reports keeping roughly 15 million bottles out of the waste stream every year. The fabric is soft polyester woven from recycled PET, and the fill is 100% recycled water-bottle fiber.

The Bark version is a custom run of the Wild Onez Beaver, produced for BHPFA with the two yellow tail stripes from the story built into the plush itself, the bright reflective paint Bark picked up from the road-painting truck on Rapid Creek. They stay on her tail for the rest of the book and they stay on the plush.

The plot of the story (a beaver restoring a Black Hills wetland) and the choice of plush vendor (a maker that pulls plastic out of the waste stream and gives it a second life) are doing the same kind of work, just at different scales!

Specifications

Who is this for

The kid in the back seat with a national-park map on their lap. Bark is a character to point at while you drive past a beaver pond on the Mickelson Trail or along Spearfish Creek. The plush gives them something to hold while you read the book; the book gives them a reason to care the next time they see a chewed-down aspen by the water.

A classroom teaching Black Hills ecology. Teachers and outdoor educators at our partner sites have been asking for an age-appropriate beaver story tied to local geography. This is that book! The set works as a read-aloud followed by a hands-on prop for keystone-species lessons.

The grandparent buying a souvenir that will actually get used. A stuffed animal that comes with its own book has a longer shelf life than either one alone. The plush survives the car ride home, and the book is what gets pulled out at bedtime for the next year.

About the author and illustrator

Eric Zimmer is a historian and prize-winning author of several books on regional history. He works at the Black Hills Area Community Foundation as Vice President of Philanthropy & Special Projects. He was born and raised in Rapid City, where he lives with his wife and two daughters; this is his first children’s book.

Ellen Devine is a nature lover, illustrator, and designer in Anchorage, Alaska. She volunteered her artwork for Bark the Beaver as a gift to the Black Hills community. Her work is at DevineCreativeCo.com.

Frequently asked questions

Is this book sold anywhere else?

Not at chain retailers and not on Amazon. BHPFA is the publisher of record on the book and the primary online seller. A small number of local Black Hills bookstores and BHPFA-partner visitor centers also stock it.

Does buying this support national parks?

Yes. BHPFA is the official nonprofit partner of Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Scotts Bluff National Monument, and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, as well as the Black Hills National Forest and Nebraska National Forests & Grasslands. Proceeds from every purchase support our growing infrastructure for environmental education and visitor services.

What’s the BHACF connection?

The book is a co-production with the Black Hills Area Community Foundation, released to commemorate BHPFA’s 80th anniversary and BHACF’s 20th. The author, Eric Zimmer, is BHACF’s VP of Philanthropy. BHACF also sponsors free author readings and book signings at libraries, parks, and nature-focused nonprofits in the Black Hills region.

Are beavers actually native to the Black Hills?

Yes. North American beavers (Castor canadensis) are native to the streams of the Black Hills region. They were trapped to near-local-extinction in the 1800s during the fur trade and have re-established slowly since, with active populations now on Spearfish Creek, Rapid Creek, French Creek, and many of the smaller drainages that feed the Cheyenne River.

Why does a beaver matter to a national forest?

Beaver dams change how water moves through a watershed. The slowed water raises the water table, recharges aquifers, traps sediment, and creates wetland habitat in places that would otherwise be dry meadow. For a forest like the Black Hills National Forest, where summer streamflow is the limiting factor for trout, songbirds, and large-mammal browse, that wetland-creation work is a measurable conservation benefit. The story arc in Bark the Beaver walks a young reader through that exact dynamic on a Willow Creek scale.

Is the Willow Creek Trail in the book a real place?

Yes. Willow Creek Trail sits on the edge of the Black Elk Wilderness in the Black Hills National Forest. The book’s geography is grounded in real Black Hills places, including Rapid Creek through downtown Rapid City and the Willow Creek Trail relocation site.

What age is this set for?

Both the book and the plush are rated 3+. The book reads as a bedtime read-aloud at the lower end and as an independent reader at the upper end of the picture-book range. The plush carries The Petting Zoo’s standard 3+ safety rating.

Who makes the plush, and what is it made from?

The plush is from The Petting Zoo’s Wild Onez series. The fabric is polyester woven from recycled PET, and the fill is 100% recycled water-bottle fiber. Each Wild Onez plush keeps roughly 17 plastic bottles out of the landfill; across the full line, The Petting Zoo reports keeping about 15 million bottles out of the waste stream every year. The Bark version is a custom run produced for BHPFA, with the two yellow tail stripes from the book built into the plush itself.

Can I get the book and the plush separately?

Yes. The book and the plush are each sold on their own. Buying the set saves 10% over buying the two separately.

Will the book be at the visitor centers?

Yes. The book and the matching plush are stocked at BHPFA-operated visitor centers at our partner sites, including Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park, in addition to BHPFA’s headquarters store in Custer.

Is the book signed?

No… not yet, at least! Eric Zimmer (author) and Ellen Devine (illustrator) are scheduled for reading events through summer 2026, including library readings during Ellen’s visit from Alaska in June. Get your book signed at these events.

Product family

• Bark the Beaver Helps the Black Hills Thrive picture book (sold on its own)
• Bark the Beaver 12-inch plush (sold on its own)