Parachuting beavers in Idaho

[WhitePineJunky]

Found this and found it fairly amusing, I guess it worked pretty good

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rpWKd9uT2Ro&pp=ygUTUGFyYWNodXRpamcgYmVhdmVycw%3D%3D

[stavebuyer]

Evidently more successful than the WKRP Thanksgiving turkey drop lol

[B.C.C. Lapp]

WKRP Turkey Drop - YouTube

[chep]

I haven't seen the beavers in a few years. My sil lived in idaho and sent me that years back. Actually the old forwarder I ran, I put a sticker of a parachuting beaver on the window. Kinda a drop me anywhere sort of challenge. 
There is a company out there that makes stickers n hats n such. Thought it was a cool story. Beavers are amazing critters and the more we learn about them makes us realize how important they were to the ecosystems before us humans came along. Recent flooding in VT made me think about what things looked like before all the roads  culverts and human dams and habitat destruction.  Floods like that wouldn't happen if folks like us hadn't trapped them out, shot them etc.
Our lowlands etc would be magnificent ecosystems that could absorb massive amounts of rain. I feel for people who live in flood zones. Often it is without a choice of course, and often the best farm ground is in those same places. Makes it complicated to find a good answer that works for everybody 

[chep]

Wearboise.com is the sticker

[Southside]

One of the creeks that runs through our farm suffered a lot of toppled over trees in the late '90s from a hurricane.  As a result the creek was no longer a creek, more of just a slow moving puddle due to all the blockages, bogans, dead flows, etc.  Kept saying one dry year I would work down there and pull a lot of the blown down stuff out as it was still alive for the most part.  Also figured I just might have the excavator do a little bit of repair work to things because in the wet season all that dead water is nasty, slimy, bug heaven.  Few years back some beavers moved in and built a few dams, used to go down there and watch them, absolutely loved it.  They never took a tree that was worth anything, but they did get the creek to return to it's natural channel.  People would ask why I allowed them to say with all the "tree damage they do" - I was and still am sad that for some reason they left, but grateful for the work they did for me.  

[Ianab]

the more we learn about them makes us realize how important they were to the ecosystems before us humans came along

We don't have beavers here, but I've read about them. How their dams eventually trap silt in the stream and turn into a fertile river flat over time, with the forest that prefers that situation  developing around the old dam. Remove the beavers and you change the whole ecosystem. and even geography of an area.

[SwampDonkey]

Yep, you should see the loam on the land after the beavers have used up all their food supply and the dam breaks free. Can be 4 feet of pure dirt on the extend of the past flooded area and not a rock in it.

I've also seen the opposite as far as making a stream. What is now an above ground stream on my land, used to be all under ground with big old cedars and black ash all across it, no sign of a brook at all, just a pool of water now and again down through. You could drive across with a truck in the low spot in the summer. Now there is acres of flooded woods, probably only 3 acres on me and lots more down stream. It had a nice stand of new cedar on my cousin's land, they killed it all out. On the farm they flooded out 25 acres of woods. They used to have tiny ponds not much more in size than Jeff's UP pond.

[Ianab]

The Beavers don't have the same management aims as you do. I don't think they like cedars, so they probably wont miss them, and will like the birch etc that eventually regrows.  ;)

If the beavers are back the land may be reverting to pre-Europen fur trade days, from ~200 years back, which would have been very different to now. 

[SwampDonkey]

I'd say aspen, balm and alders would be their preferences. Very few birch around that spot for seed source. I've got one area that was old cedar that did come back with a lot of white birch and balm. But nowhere near that creek. I've got one white birch and one yellow birch on the whole place big enough for a log and not near water. Unless birch grow back thick, the moose wipe them off the map. Even a 15 foot tall birch on it's own is a target. :D

I thinned one woodlot with a lot of birch one time, the moose moved in in the winter and broke down all the birch tops. Looked like an ice storm hit the place.  :D

[Claybraker]

Biting rodents from the sky.
Rats that mean just what they gnaw.
They have come to chew and dam.

Apologies to Sgt Barry Sadler

[mudfarmer]

Thanks for sharing, they are my favorite critters. Had a bad rap but improving around the world! Used to trap them as a kid, not much but would put in a set now and then if it was good on a muskrat line. Old timers here would blow the dams with dynamite, target practice on moving objects etc. Now I am making up for a little of it by paying taxes for a bunch of them so they can do their thing.



 

Today after work I am picking blackberries along the shore of one of the ponds, they are up to 10 ponds on 200ac ranging from quite large to not that small.

There is a presentation and book signing tomorrow in Tupper Lake, a lot of good beaver books nowadays but have not read this one yet, see y'all there? https://www.wildcenter.org/events/science-speaker-series-leila-philip/  :P  ;D

[SawyerTed]

 :D That's kind of funny! 

Flying and parachuting beavers conjured up entirely different images in my mind!     But my mind can be warped!

The lengths wildlife managers go is truly astonishing. 

[WhitePineJunky]

:D That's kind of funny!

Flying and parachuting beavers conjured up entirely different images in my mind!    But my mind can be warped!

The lengths wildlife managers go is truly astonishing.

Me too lol 
The beavers could be Canadian paratroopers only thing that's missing is the Canadian Air Force aka Canadian geese! 

[SwampDonkey]

I like to see otters myself, come around and keep them beavers in their place. They can have all they can catch and eat. ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

   I like the self-releasing style of the boxes. The beaver the guy put in the box was a lot calmer than the ones I was familiar with. If I'd tried to pick up a beaver like that I'd have lost some fingers or worse. Neat video.

[SwampDonkey]

When I was a youngster it was common for DNR to bring a beaver to community fairs as part of wildlife awareness. They'd have a setup with a small pond, some branches in it and a spot the beaver could climb out of the water and he/she might be chewing on a stick for the bark for a snack.

Wild beaver have been known to attack people. Many cases were rabid.

[WhitePineJunky]

I have beavers I let them be mostly they seem to like black cherry and alders. I chicken wired my good oaks around the pond