"This is the story of a beaver named Geronimo and a simpler time of ingenuity, when the rodents parachuted into Idaho’s backcountry. Yes, I just wrote that sentence, and every word is true. As the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has celebrated its 75th anniversary this year, a number of wild tales of wildlife management have surfaced, and none are better than Geronimo’s. His tale is from the 1940s, when an abundance of beavers in some areas prompted depredation concerns, according to an article headlined “Transplanting Beavers by Airplane and Parachute” by Fish and Game’s Elmo W. Heter. The article was published in 1950 in the Journal of Wildlife Management." - Jessie

The problem with trucks and mules, however, was that beavers died in large numbers because they weren’t suited for the heat of summertime travel. “Older individuals often become dangerously belligerent,” Heter wrote. “Rough trips on pack animals are very hard on them. Horses and mules become spooky and quarrelsome when loaded with a struggling, odorous pair of live beavers.” (Let me stop here and point out that the problem with present-day Fish and Game reports is that they don’t use enough words like belligerent, quarrelsome and odorous.) Heter didn’t explain how Fish and Game ultimately turned to parachutes — I picture a meeting of bigwigs with diagrams, a wading pool and model beavers — but in 1948, they became the preferred method for a backcountry beavers blitzkrieg. (I want to stop here again and ponder the thoughts of the elk and deer as they watched the aerial raid of ruffian rodents.) - Steve C, Team Marina