Following World War II, a large number of Idaho farmers began complaining that beavers were ruining their land. They argued that overeager beavers were building dams in their much-needed irrigation canals. Once beavers built dams in their irrigation canals, water could not get to their crops. Farmers wanted to exterminate the beavers. This led to a years-long dispute because fur trappers liked the beavers for their monetary value. They made a considerable amount of money by selling beaver pelts. Also, conservationists wanted to protect the beavers because, as The Idaho Statesman reported, “Idaho is one of the few places where [beavers] still can be found outside a zoo.” For years, farmers, fur trappers, and conservationists argued as to whether beavers “are worth a dam—their own dams, specifically.”
To quell the dispute, Idaho’s fish and game department decided to transport the beavers into the Chamberlain Basin in the Sawtooth Mountain Range in central Idaho where they could build dams and not hurt productive fields. The beavers would also help with erosion in the mountainous region. The task was daunting for the agents of the fish and game department as well as the beavers themselves. Agents, farmers, and fur trappers set out live traps to capture beavers without harming them. They put each beaver in its own cage, loaded the cages onto trucks, and carried them in this manner until they ran out of roads. Then, agents used horses to deliver the beavers deep into the woods. The trip took several days and was taxing on the agents and the beavers. Many beavers died before they could be released. Several of the beavers which survived the trip overheated and were in such poor condition that they refused to eat and died soon after being released. Conservationists needed a better way.
Ivol Sies, district conservation supervisor at Boise, Vernon Rich, federal aid coordinator for Idaho, and Elmo Meyer, conservation officer at McCall, came up with a two-part plan. They devised a new cage for delivering the beavers. Their cage was a simple spring-loaded box which was hinged at the bottom. Each box held a single beaver. The weight of the beaver kept the box closed. To be sure the cages remained closed until it was time to release the beavers, two inner tubes were pulled around the box and tied together at the top with a string. As soon as the box carrying the beaver touched the ground, the tension on the string released, the spring-loaded box opened, and the beaver crawled out. That was just the first part of their plan. They needed a way to reduce the transportation time.
Conservationists wanted to capture and release beavers back into the primitive areas of central Idaho in a timelier manner. Trucks and horses just took too long. Building roads into the Chamberlain Basin was too expensive. They had considered transporting the beavers by airplane and having agents release the beavers once they arrived, but there was no suitable place to land amongst the dense foliage. The answer came with World War II military surplus items.
On August 14, 1948, the second part of their plan to transport the beavers into the primitive areas of Idaho began. Conservationists loaded their vehicle with eight of the new hinged cases each of which contained a single beaver. Whereas all previous trips had taken several conservation agents, the new plan only required two people, one agent and a pilot. The vehicle they used was a twin-engine Beechcraft airplane. Remember, there was no place to land in the dense foliage. The pilot flew the airplane at an altitude of between 500 and 800 feet above Chamberlain Basin and the conservation agent simply pushed the cages out. Of the first 76 beavers they released into Chamberlain Basin during that operation, only one beaver died when he fought his way out of the new cage and fell to his death. The other beavers landed safely because their fall was slowed… by parachutes left over from World War II. Hundreds of beavers were safely relocated in what has become known as the beaver drop.
Sources:
1. The Idaho Statesman, August 24, 1948, p.11.
2. San Angelo Standard-Times, August 25, 1948, p.6.
3. The Spokesman-Review, September 13, 1948, p.5.