#parachuting beavers

[wtf-fun-factss]

Parachuting beavers was a conservation tactic in Idaho in the 1950s. Click to read the full fact.

[qupritsuvwix]

Why NASA Is Watching Where Idaho’s Parachuting Beavers Landed

The mini-paratroopers have a new role to play today.

[meuponmyponyonmyboat]

1948 Northern Idaho Beaver Drop.

[naonicblog2]

US officials parachuted 76 beavers into the Idaho wilderness – then something astounding happened — BBC Wildlife Magazine

In post-World War II North America, beavers were wreaking havoc in rural communities. So the state department came up with an ingenious solu

[coolmahtava]

misread this as conversation strategy & just thought yea that'd work on me id talk all day about parachuting beavers too

[juliagreenillustration]

This illustration will be available soon as an 8x10 art print in my online shop, Hip Holiday Market, and Crafty Wonderland

[chamomile34]

Fur for the Future

[rjzimmerman]

Parachuting Beavers

Yep, this is a true story. And maybe the story can win your personal award of the craziest story of the day/week/month?

Here's the quick summary of the story from the Center for Biological Diversity:

Just after World War II, the land around McCall and Payette Lake in western Idaho bore witness to a human invasion of building. Lakeside homes, docks and roads replaced wilderness -- where, for centuries, only beavers had been doing the building -- and the two competing mammal species found themselves too close for comfort. The semi-aquatic rodents received their marching orders. Enter Elmo Heter of Idaho Fish and Game to mediate the turf war. Heter tinkered with several plans to relocate the beavers into the roadless wilds of what's now called the Frank Church Wilderness -- but that same lack of roads made relocation tricky. Ultimately Heter decided to capitalize on a surplus of parachutes left over from the war. He devised an outrageous and alarming scheme to drop 76 beavers into the wild by chute -- and astonishingly, all but one survived. The paddle-tailed critters multiplied and took to their new home prodigiously.

Here's the link to the full story published by Boise State Public Radio.