Beaver Drop/Bombing/Parachuting

This was a real thing back-in-the-day!

 

The beaver drop was a 1948 Idaho Department of Fish and Game program to relocate beavers from Northwestern Idaho to the Chamberlain Basin in Central Idaho. The program involved moving 76 beavers by airplane and parachuting them down to the ground. The program was started to address complaints about property damage from residents. Parachuting beavers proved to be more cost-effective and it also decreased beaver mortality rates more than alternative methods of relocation.

 

In 2015, the Idaho state fur bearer manager for Fish and Game, Steve Nadeau, said the state still traps and relocates beavers. He said it has been 50 years since the state relocated beavers by air. Idaho Fish and Game's Steve Liebenthal said he does not know why the project was discontinued. He said, "my assumption is that they accomplished what they wanted to accomplish in the area and there was no need to continue".

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To watch a video of a drop: