Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / Operation Beaver Drop: Idaho's 1948 Aerial Wildlife Relocation

Transcript

Operation Beaver Drop: Idaho's 1948 Aerial Wildlife Relocation · PNW Haunts & Homicides

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi Cassie, Hi Caitlin, Hi Creepy Bee Boo.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Helloooo, summer is upon us, though you wouldn't necessarily know
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  Speaker 1: Even more, but wait, there's more.
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  Speaker 3: of supporting the show, including exclusive bonus content. I don't know,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: I'm just saying, maybe is this a good time to
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: check it out?
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to tell you guys what
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: to do. But you know, no, Welcome to Randy Dave
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: rabbit Holes, where retake the history of the West off
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the rails.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: If you like your history unhinged, you are in the
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: right place. I'm Shae and I'm Jody. Let's fall down
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: the rabbit hole, Jody Shae.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk about beavers. Beavers, not the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: hairy lady parts.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: Oh well, my daughter was a beaver. Organ say about
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: your daughters. Okay, so why are we talking about Oregon
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: State women's soccer but then lady parts?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: No, no, we're talking about those cute, little damn building critters.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Beavers were basically most of the reason the Hudson Bay
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Company invaded the land occupied by the indigenous people of
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest, bringing novel European disease and exploiting the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: native people.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Oh, beavers, beavers made this happen.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Yes, I knew.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: I didn't really like them through blood they're so destructive.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: No, you will love beavers by the Okay, they're actually
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: incredibly important to our environment. Oh I knew that.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, just really didn't like them.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Well screw you, and you're beaver hating. But I don't
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: know where I was going with insults, trying not to
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: stay that And by the way, like just that little
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: statement took me down another rabbit hole about how bad
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the Hudson's Bay Company was. Oh yeah, so I might
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: do that in another darker episode. But because do you
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: know if the current had some bay company is like
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: the old is it? Is it somebody? Just three hundred
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: and fifty years So it's the same of the same company.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And apparently I'm not doing very well now. Oh gosh, darn, gosh, darn.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: It only took three hundred fifty years to get what
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: they deserve, right, Yeah, that's another story for another day.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: But today we're gonna keep it light hearted, and we're
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: going to talk about some cute little furry buddies and
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: a completely unhinged tale from Idahose history. Oh weird, involving
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: beaver's parachutes and airplanes. All right, wait, are the beaver? Okay,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I can't wait. I want to see a beaver. Don't
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: ask any questions.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I need to see a beaver go down in
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: a parachute. Keep your pants on, Okay, I have to
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: put them on once again, Jody's pants lest she's doing
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: the Winny the Oh again, so that since I gave
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: her the blankety, she just doesn't wear pants.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I don't need them, not when you're wearing a blanket hoodie.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: But before we get started, I need to give a
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: shout out to Mark Stubs. Oh, Hi, a buddy, Marks Stubs. Uh.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: He was very he told Rich he was very upset
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: that he didn't get a shout out when I did
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the episode on the moss Man of Idaho. And I
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: was like, you're right, I neglected Mark. I'm so sorry Stubs. Wait,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: is he got a lot of moss on his back?
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Or is he the moss Man? And we didn't know
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: calls Idaho home? Oh got you? So you know lives
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: in Boisey, so high Mark, And sorry, I didn't give
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: you your shout out, which you deserve. Did we shout him
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: out in our other Idaho Milicia ones? Maybe? Maybe? I
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: think so that was a long time ago. There's at
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: least five years ago, that's what it feels like anyway,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: So we do need to go visit Mark. He keeps
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: inviting us out there, because now Mark, you dahoe, that's right.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: I used to say this every time we drive to
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: Montana with the kids. I'd hope yeah at noo, I'm
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: not no.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: How do we do it? I can't remember.
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: Let's give it its episode three guys.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: So uh Mark though, by the way, I this is
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: just a message to just Mark, so everybody else cannot
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: listen right now. If you're not Mark, if your name
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: is not Mark, now you can pass forward one. Fine.
• 5:25
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• 5:30
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• 5:32
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• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the ten dollars level or a higher, because then you
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: can tell us what you want us to do for episodes.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Nobody's taking us up on this yet. None of our
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Patreon supporters at the ten dollars level or higher have
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: been like, hey, you should do this, right, So this
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: is my challenge. What you pay for around? Yeah, all
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: of our Patreon supporters at this point, now just tell
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: us a thing and we'll do it. Let's do it.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: I want to be told what to do. I like
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: it totally fits my personality. So Mark, if you want
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: us to talk about Idaho every month, we would do it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: It's just one of the perks you get by being
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a patron. Anyway, all right, you ready to talk about beaver? Oh,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about beaver. They're so dirty. Do
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: you know why beavers are such good builders? Well, they
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: have to be because they always give a damn Oh, yes,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I like it. Okay, So beaver's the second largest rodent
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: after the kappy barra or crappy Barbara, as a Frank
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: aka creepy Dave calls him, which is what I'm gonna
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: call him till the end of the time. It's crappy Barber's,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: crappy Barber's, krabby Barber's. They are the ultimate eco warriors.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: You should love these guys, Okay, okay, tell me more.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: These cute and busy little critters are vastly crucial to
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: our natural ecosystem. They are considered ecosystem engineers and a
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: keystone species, meaning that they have a large impact on
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: their environment. So many other species benefit from the beaver's
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: hard work. Basically, beavers are damn important. Oh I love it.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: See what it said.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: It's going to be a great episode. I can tell
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: you love puns. This is a punter.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Their dams restrict water, creating wetland habitats for many other species,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: like fish, birds, insects, and amphibians. In the Writing Mountain
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: National Park in Canada, beaver dams are responsible for approximately
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: fifty percent of the wetlands in the park.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: Oh wow, so water would have gone by, yes, but
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: they damned. So now that we have wetlands.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Yes, which gives habitat to all of these other animals.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Oh damn, that's right. Their activity also increases plant biodiversity,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: providing food and cover for other animals. So more trees
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: will grow where there's more water, which provides many different benefits.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: So one thing it does is when you have trees
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: grow and they shade the streams, is it cools the
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: water down, allowing for more fish to thrive, and then
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: more fish thrive, more birds come in, and more other
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: animals come in, including mammals. So otherwise a lot of
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: these areas would just be kind of barren because the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: water just flows through and goes away, and the beaver
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: keeps the water in the area so that life can flourish. Also,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: these dams and the resulting pools act as a natural
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: water filter, retaining sediment and filtering out pollutants like heavy metals, pesticides,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and fertilizers, which improves the quality of water downstream, not
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: only for animals, but also for us dumb tesla driving humans.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Just if you buy a tesla, that's going to save
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the earth apparently kill the rest of us, but whatever. Sure,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: these ponds also store water during droughts because holding the
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: water in these ponds allows the water to be absorbed
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: into the subsurface like a sponge instead of being evaporated
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: into the air. So the same effect also helps to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: mitigate flood. So instead of water just flowing through the dams,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: help stop it up. The substrate absorb some of the water,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: and water does flow through the dams a little bit,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: so it's not like it's just creating like a huge lake,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: but it's slowing it down so it's not gonna flood
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: further downstream. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, which by
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the time of this episode's release probably has twelve people
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: working for it, oh say that beavers do more than
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: any other species aside from humans, to shape their environment. Wow,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I just saw them as doing these things destructively. I
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: never saw them as doing them constructively. Do you need
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: to change your thinking about beaver? I guess okay, we
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: gotta love the beaver. I did, so humans are number
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: one in that respect of shaping their environment. I mean,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: why do we even need a national park? That lumber
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: is much better used to build a bunch three and
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a half million dollars five thousand square foot borrowing MC
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: mansions in Bellevue for overpaid employees of Microsoft. Yeah, I'm
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: getting thumbs up.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: Thumbs up, Yeah, Perka, Uh maybe.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Maybe Jody thing about this? What about you know what's
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: better than a national park? A luxury golf resort that
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: costs eight hundred thousand dollars to buy into. Oh okay,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I'm in. I mean nature is what I always say. Yes,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm famous for saying nature. Right. I'm so glad.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: You're you're all over. This is This is definitely one
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: of my passions. This, this problem we've got, and I
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: love that you're digging into.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, coat those ducks and oil.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: Let's damn this shit up. Just oh mean, damn this
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: stuff up. So many beeps are gonna happen in this episode.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: Coat those ducks and oil.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Those damn ducks don't do anything other than poop anyway,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: right exactly.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: This is what we need, that preserved land for dig
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: it drill baby drer.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I know. Oh god, Okay, sorry, the current events have
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: got me a little bit roiled up. Okay, simmert had
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: not where was it? Okay? Oh yeah, all right? Beers
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: are the ship? Beep?
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Beep?
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Do they speaking of beaver's? Are the ship? Does their
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: ship look like TUTSI rolls. I did not look up
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: beaver poop, but I'm going to now, well, I feel
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: like the beaver after researching the story. I feel like
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the beaver should be in the middle of every flag
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: in the Pacific Northwest. Oh, they're that important. But the animal,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: not the hairy lady parts.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, that would definitely not the one that they've
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: turned they've used for Oregon State for the last like
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: ten years, because before that it actually looked like a beaver.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Oh is it anymore else? Feel like a little gerbil
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: or something?
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: Oh no, my daughter was playing soccer for them when
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: they switched over their logo or their little mascot picture. Unhappy,
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: I will have to look this up. Before petition used
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: to look like a like a beaver. Now it looks
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: like a get or something.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Oh, they tried to cuten it up
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: too much. Yeah, so I mean if it was the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: hairy lady parts on a flag. I kind of actually
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: feel like this country would be a better place, definitely
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: if we celebrated the person attached to the hairy lady
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: parts more instead of trying to subjugate them. Okay, no
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: hour of their pa anyway, but Beaver's they're gonna bev
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: beav away BEV. So after the close of World War two,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: you know when we said, whoopsie, I guess all of
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: you Japanese Americans that we rounded up into internment camps
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: could go home. Now, here's twenty five dollars to Bay
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: tank train ticket.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: Sorry about all the businesses you once had and the
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: homes you once lived in.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Sorry about everything you lost. Here's twenty five dollars by
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: a train ticket. Anyways, can you tell I was feeling
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: spicy when I read that. Yes, yes, must have been
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: a good news day. Many of Idaho's residents decided to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: get out of the city and start a new life
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: in the rural areas in the south was part of
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: the state. Oh yeah, that's all the reasons we have
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: that one star review. Anyway, So problem was one star
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: and shove it up your nose and then damn that,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: damn it, damn something, damn that up, damn it. Orifice
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: is your body with that one star review? Okay, okay.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: So all these people in the cities of Idaho after
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the war decided they wanted to go out and be
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: like gentleman farmers or something. So they wanted to ge
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: out and start a new life in the rural areas
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the state. So problem was this was beaver land, and
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the beavers weren't about to stop doing what they do
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: best building dams just because a bunch of two legs
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: moved in.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: Yes, I actually follow somebody on social media that does
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: like road work and having to undo beaver work all
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: the time.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: So people moving into McCall and Payette Lake, is that
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: how you say it? Pay E T? I agree, Pyette Lake?
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Sure it works for me. Hopefully I'm not saying it wrong. Sorry,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I FM. So people moving to McCall and Paiett Lake
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: were building homes, but the beavers, who had been doing
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: their thing there for centuries, started becoming a nuisance, cutting
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: down trees and creating ponds and wet lens where they
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: were not wunted. So the Idaho Department of Fish and
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Game in the area was called in. Normally, in these
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: type of situations, the offending animal population would just be
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: killed off because you know, nature, nature, But who needs it?
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: My censor, beep is going to be like right at
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: hand when I'm editing this episode. Oh, I can do
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: it for you, beep. Thank you. It's very helpful after
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the fact. But beavers had been hunted to extremely low
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: levels throughout the eighteen hundreds, like they estimated started out
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: that populations were in the tens of millions before they
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: started being hunted for fur, to only one hundred thousand
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: by nineteen hundreds. Holy cow, I'm surprised they didn't go
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the way of the bison right just about. But by
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the nineteen hundreds we started to wise up that they
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: were pretty important to the ecosystem. So we were seeing
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: the results of wiping beavers out of these populations, and
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: then we'd have floods, droughts, fires, we'd lose all this
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: wetland habitat. And if you want to shoot ducks, you
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: need a wetland habitat, right, So the US Department of
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the Interior spearheaded a program to reintroduce beavers to the
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: state instead of killing them, starting in nineteen thirty six.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: This program was massively successful. The cost of relocating a
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: beaver to Idaho was only eight dollars and the estimated
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: value of a beaver's work was three hundred dollars. Oh wow,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: well worth it. Yeah, So seventy six beavers ended up
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: being relocated to the Chamberlain Basin in the saw Tooth
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Mountain Range in central Idaho, which I don't know if
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: that sounds kind of familiar, the saw saw Tooth Mountain Range,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: but that is also the location of our mass Man
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: of Idaho Frenchman's Frenchman's Springs. Oh yes, yes, a couple
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: of episodes ago. So they knew that Chamberlain Basin was
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the perfect place to relocate the pesky critters. But the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: problem was that this area was really hard to get to.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: There are no roads into this area. The way beavers
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: had been relocated in the past was really difficult. So
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: first the beavers would be trapped, loaded onto a truck
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and delivered to a conservation officer who's basically a specialized
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: forest ranger who would oversee the loading of the beavers
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: onto mules who were then led over the mountains. This
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: was a long process and it resulted in the beavers
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: becoming overstressed, overheated, and not eating or dress. I was wondering, like,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: how did you maintain that much? Yeah, because beavers actually
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: have to be like cool in water. They're like a
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: radiator or something. I don't know. Yeah, sound like I
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. I mean you had me
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: because I don't really get a radiator. I believe you.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: They needed to be cooled somehow, radiator fluid. I'm smart, Oh,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: thank you, but fu so they needed a better way
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: to get our little buddies to their new home. But
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: before we get into it, let's take a quick break. Remember,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: if you want ad free episodes and bonus content, head
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: to radydrabbit holes dot com forward slash support to see
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: how you can become a supporter of the show and
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: get great perks. Okay, so we're in Idaho. It's nineteen
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: forty eight. We've got a bunch of pesky beavers causing
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: chaos in town, and we have to come up with
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: a safer and easier way to get them to Chamberlain Basin.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Enter Elmo heater, our buddy Elmo. His name was Any
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: things are going, I'm just staring at you, because so
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: many things are going thran. Okay, Elmo. People did name
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: their children Elmo at one point, Yes, for sure. Our
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: buddy Elmo noted that there were a bunch of useless
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: World War two planes and airmen sitting around twiddling their thumbs,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and came up with a brilliant plan. Oh, because they
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: used to be in World War two and now they're bored. Yes, okay,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the planes and the airmen. Yes, what if we parachuted
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the beavers into basin in Chamberlain? Basin?
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: Be here we go, here we Yeah, this is almost
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: as insane as the moose turn drop.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: So I thought about the whole time. So you heard me, right,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: let's throw those critters out of a perfectly good airplane.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Wait, were people with them? Tell me more? Okay, I'm
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: telling you more right now. It sounds crazy, but it
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: actually might work. It solved so many problems, help the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: habitat and Chamberlain save money and make good use of
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: surplus parachutes. The estimated cost to drop four beavers from
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: a plane was thirty dollars in nineteen forty eight. Wow,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: even with a fuel Look at that. Yeah. So, now
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: that they had a plan. They had to figure out
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: a way to make it work. So first they thought
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: they could drop the beaver in a willow box and
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: that the beaver could just chew its way out. This
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: idea was scrapped because the beavers immediately went to chewing
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: through the boxes and there would have been twenty beavers
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: wandering around the airplane. No bueno. They're quick, yes, like
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: immediately as soon as you put them in the box,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: they're chewing them out. That's hilarious. So then they came
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: up with a specially designed wooden box that would spring
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: open upon impact. It was basically two lidless boxes with
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: air holes that were fastened together with hinges like a suitcase,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: so they just fit together like this. Okay okay, And
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: then they were wrapped with rope and basically by suspending them,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: you kept tension on the rope, and as soon as
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: they hit the ground, the tension on the rope was
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: let go and the box would spring open. Oh okay, okay.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: So but they had to test them to make sure
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: it'd work. So first they tested them with dummy weights
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and it was working out pretty good. But what they
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: really needed was a live dummy. Oh no, So enter Geronimo,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: an older beaver who was conscripted into this hair brained plan.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Oh he's old, he doesn't need to live anymore. It's fine,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it's fine. He's useless now. Hmmm. So poor Geronimo was
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: put in the box and launched over a landing field.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Each time the box would spring open, Geronimo would waddle out,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: only to be grabbed and stuck back in the box
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to do it again. It got to this was so sad.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: It got to the point where the poor little guy
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: was just resigned to his fate, and as soon as
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the handlers approached him, he would just crawl back into
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the box, knowing he'd have to do it again. Oh
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: my gosh, he's like, I guess I have to go
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: into is a good sport, My goodness. So after Elmo
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: was satisfied with the plan, they went to work. So
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: first the beavers were trapped, then they were sorted for
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: size and weight. Ear tags would be attached for future tracking.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Two similarly sized beavers would be loaded into the special
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Beaver drop box. Suspension lines were run through the boxes
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and then loaded into an airplane. Parachutes would be attached
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: to a dropline and the crates stacked in rows ten
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: boxes to a low, so twenty beavers ready for the
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: flight to mountain meadows. On August fourteenth, nineteen forty eight,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the plane headed over to the drop location, and somewhere
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: between five hundred and eight hundred feet the boxes were
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: launched out of the perfectly good airplane to drift down
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: to the meadow below. The special boxes popped open upon landing,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: and the hapless beaver, a little confused but none the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: worse for wear, crawled out and waddled away, presumably to
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: set up his wood shop and his new home wood shop.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Our real hero of the story, the long suffering Geronimo,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: was rewarded by being the first male beaver to be
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: thrown out of the airplane into chamberlain basin. Oh god,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: but along with three hot young female beavers.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Leggy lady, uggy ladies, Geronimo. Oh wait, is this where
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: they came from?
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Geronimo? I presume they set up a polygamous community and
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: lived happily ever after like beavers do. Exactly so. In total,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: seventy six beavers were launched out of an airplane into
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the basin, and only one beaver failed to survive the journey. Wow.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: So apparently this beaver managed to escape his box during
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the drop climbed atop the wooden carrier. It was free
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: air surfing for a few moments, but then when he
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: was seventy five feet off the ground, he fell to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: his demise. RSVP, little beaver. So close, I know. And
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: apparently the project was a success. The beaver set up
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: shop and began building dams, creating some amazing habitat that
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: exists today. Wow. How quickly did they assuming they probably
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: went straight they were building dams. Yeah, they had dams
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: built within two weeks. Wow. So nowadays there are ways
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to prevent beaver dams from causing floods, like the beaver BAFFLERFWA,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: which is a pipe that is installed through the beaver
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: dam to allow a low flow of water to escape.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: And it's fish friendly, so it's like a fish ladder.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: And because of how helpful beaver dams are, they are
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: being brought back to areas of Utah, Idaho and other states.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: So they've been extremely successful in helping to limit wildfires
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and manage drought conditions. So they keep the water in
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: instead of it just going out and evaporating. Yeah, so
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: fires aren't as bad. There's actually a stream restoration company
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: in Utah called Anna Branch Solutions, which relocates beavers to
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: help restore greenery for the area. They build the beavers
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: and man made dam first so they'll have a home
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: upon arrival and will stick around. And then they let
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: them go to work, and they can take a stream
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: from only flowing half the year to flowing year round,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: which increases plant life wow, shade trees, fish populations, and
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: bird populations. So they basically slow it down so the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: water lasts yeah until the next rainy season. Yeah wow yeah,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: very important. So this type of conservation project is so
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: successful that you can even see it from space. NASA's
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Ecological Conservation program that is a mouthful which I'm sure
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: doesn't have long to live, which has now been determined
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: to be waste, fraud and abuse. Yes I was gonna say,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: which I'm sure doesn't have long to live at the
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: hands of Dodgy of Elmo, I mean Elon say bye. Yeah,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: not the good Almo that helped drop beavers from a plane,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the bad Almo. Bye bye. NASA's Ecological Conservation program major
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Oh wait wait wait SpaceX will take it up. Oh,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: there you go. We got you. No worries, we got you.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: So they use NASA satellites to regularly take images of
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the Earth's surface and they can see the impact of
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: all those beavers that were parachuted into Idaho in the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: nineteen forties. Wow. So you can actually see the increased
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: greenery from space. And when a wildfire torched the surrounding
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: area in twenty eighteen, you could see that the beaver
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: area resisted the fire. Oh wow, m hm. So instead
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: of raking a forest, we need to drop beavers into it. Yes,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: we need to keep the forest because you know what
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: also happens when you clearcut a forest is that flooding
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: and fires increase because what grows up afterwards is highly
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: flammable material. Absolutely. Also, you're decimating the habitats of lots
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: of animals. But screw the animals. That won't be any money.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: It won't be a good enough excuse in a capitalistic society.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Do those spotted owls make any money?
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: No?
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: No, So I'm very upset about what's going on right
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: now with the they're planning on basically like deforesting our
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: national parks national parks. Dan Evans is rolling over in
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: is great? Absolutely as a Republican. Look, sorry, we're ranting.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: You're lucky that you're getting a podcast, exactly. It is
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: very hard to do a fun podcast in a time
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: like this. It's seems like a distraction and waste of time. Yes,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: but maybe we can highlight wonderful, important creatures. Well.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: It does help me when I hear things have been
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: somewhat like this in the past, and that we have
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: as human beings overcome these things and improve them and
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: made them better. Yes, so to talk about them in
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: that way is hopeful, It.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Is absolutely so. This unhinged story of parachuting beavers has
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: left a big impression on the local community. New Colony
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Beer Company and Boise even incorporated it into their logo
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: with a cute little beaver using a parachute made out
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: of hot flowers. Oh, it's so amazing. I love it
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: so much. I need a T shirt. They have a
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: huge mural in their tap room commemorating the event, So Mark,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: make sure you take us there when we visit. Absolutely,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: we need to know. I need a T shirt from there,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: for sure. It's so cute. So what's the moral of
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the story, Maybe, just maybe instead of bulldozing everything for
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: another strip mall nobody asks for. We should take a
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: lesson from the beers, work with nature instead of against it. Absolutely,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: because if a beaver can survive being yeaded out of
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: an airplane, surely we humans can figure out how to
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: coexist without turning every less patch of green into a
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: parking lot. And hey, if all use fails, maybe we
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: just need to start air dropping beavers into developers front lawns,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: you know, for conservation. God, that would be amazing developers
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I have, So can we make a list? I know
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: who needs a beaver in their backyard? I know people. Well,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: thank you guys for this was fun. You did change
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: my mind. Did I change your mind about? You did
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: change my mind about beavers. Now I have a whole
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: different view of them. Yes, they are not destructive. They
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: are helpful. They're just doing what they were made to do. Man,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: beavers are gonna beave. Damn they're They're just doing their thing. Yep,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: they are damn good little critters. This is a damn
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: good story. Thank you. You're a damn good listener. All right, guys, Well,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: remember you can always reach out to me at Shayariny
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: day rabbit holes dot com. If you have a story
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: of unhinged history or unhinged animals that you want us
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: to cover. Happy to hear all of your suggestions and
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: always happy to hear from you. It makes us feel
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: when you reach out to us. It makes us feel
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: like we're reaching somebody, and it makes it all worth it, absolutely,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: because when we feel like we're just talking into dead air,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: it can get a little tiresome. So when we know
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: that people are listening and we know that people appreciate
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: what we're doing, it absolutely means the world to us.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: So even if you don't have the wherewithal to support
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: us financially, just sending us a nice message or leaving
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: us a nice review on Apple podcasts, that is so
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: helpful to just keep us happy and going, especially now
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: when things are weird, right, it helps damn up the
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: bad things and yes are the water and keeps us,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: keeps us fresh, make happy, a little pool of happiness. Yes,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: So help us make a little pool of happiness instead
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: of all that happiness flowing downstream into a desert. Help
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: our ecosystem. Yes, thank you all right, Well, thank you, Jody,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: thank you, Shay. Great story. You're welcome all right, thank
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: you Rof for being a good boy. Yes, Les, minimal
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: bumps to the minimal. All right, guys, well, we'll see
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: you next time. Ann see you down the rabbit hole.