Beavers used to parachute into Idaho’s backcountry

I have a Christmas present for you.

It’s a story about parachuting beavers. No, really.

In the 1940s, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game decided that there were too many beavers in some areas. They wanted to transplant them to the backcountry, where they could get, well, busy and produce more beavers while improving the habitat for other wildlife.

First, they strapped the beavers to mules. Neither the mules nor the beavers liked this. Not at all.

So instead, Fish and Game created a box that allowed them to drop the beavers into the backcountry from a plane.

An unlucky critter named Geronimo was their test subject. Amazingly, he survived. In 1948, 76 beavers were parachuted into the backcountry. All but one survived.

My quick summary of this story doesn’t do it justice. I can’t recommend enough that you go read it.

Rob Thornberry of the Post Register did a masterful job of telling the full, fascinating tale. I can’t remember when I’ve been more entertained. And I’ve never been so proud to call Idaho my home state.

If you need even more, you can read a 1950 report in The Journal of Wildlife Management about the project. It includes a diagram of the box (really very clever) and more details about Geronimo and the project.

Rob Thornberry was kind enough to answer a few of my questions:

How did you find this story?

A friend at Fish and Game emailed me a link to the 1950 report. Apparently somebody nationally had asked about the story and my friend just sent it to me as something to smile about. At first, I wasn’t going to do anything with it, but I couldn’t keep it out of my mind.

What was your response when you first heard about parachuting beavers?

At first, I laughed out loud. Like I said, I put it aside because I wasn’t going to write about it but I had a break in my day and reread the article by Elmo Heter. On deadline the next day, I just started writing.

It seemed like you had a lot of fun writing this story. Is that true?

I love writing, especially when the words are flowing. The words flowed on this story. It basically wrote itself. Then I went back and looked for alliterations and other areas to have fun.

What sort of response have you had to this story?

I haven’t had a ton of response to the story, but the comments have been incredibly positive. It is also interesting to me that I am getting folks emailing me from all over the Northwest.

How are you ever going to top a story of parachuting beavers?

I hope I top the parachuting beaver story but I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t happen.