When Beavers Flew

May 1, 2024
Nuisance beavers find a new home. In 1948, in fast-growing McCall, Idaho, beavers were looked at as pests. Game warden Elmo Heter tried to remove them, but it was hard to keep semi-aquatic animals happy on a long horseback journey. He came up with an innovative solution: flying them into the mountains and dropping them by parachute into Idaho's backcountry. (In the aftermath of World War II, surplus parachutes were readily available.) Elmo designed a box that would open when it landed and experimented with a test beaver he named Geronimo. (Readers probably won't know that this was what World War II airmen shouted as they parachuted out of planes.) Once he was certain the boxes would work, he captured 75 more beavers and had them all flown and dropped into a mountain wilderness where beavers had been wiped out years earlier. A later survey revealed that the beavers had done just what Elmo had intended: They dammed streams and made a wetland. Tracy's storytelling is succinct, straightforward, and appropriate for her young audience. She emphasizes the advantages of Elmo's excellent idea, both for the beavers and for the wilderness; backmatter addresses later controversies about wildlife relocation and newer methods. Uribe's muted digital artwork portrays the details of Elmo's planning, the beauty of the landscape, and some very appealing beavers. These spreads would show well at storytime. A celebration of an early environmental success. (author's note, selected sources) (Informational picture book. 4-8)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 15, 2024
Grades K-3 While properly pointing out in her afterword that animal translocation is a chancy business, Tracy describes one case that proved a spectacular success. Seeing in 1948 that McCall, Idaho, was afflicted by too many local beavers, fish-and-game warden Elmo Heter had an idea: Why not move some of the pesky creatures to a more-remote area in the Chamberlain Basin, where in the previous century they had been hunted nearly to extinction? When transporting them turned out to be a challenge, Heter designed a box that could be dropped safely by parachute, ran tests until it worked consistently, trapped a beaver he named Geronimo, and ran the tests ""over and over"" again (which may have readers feeling for the rodent). Then, he trapped 75 more beavers and flew them all into the wild. Returning a year later, he found them busily transforming their habitat, as they are to this day. Uribe illustrates Heter's invention with enough detail to show how it worked, also providing rugged landscapes and close-ups of industrious beavers doing what they do in wetland settings.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2024
The environmental contributions of beaver dams are well documented. But too many beavers can cause problems, particularly for humans attempting to alter the landscape for their own purposes. Such was the situation in McCall, Idaho, in 1948 when Fish and Game warden Elmo Heter sought a nonlethal way to remove the excess beaver population. Transporting the animals across mountainous terrain to the nearby preserve of Chamberlain Basin, where they had been hunted to near extinction a hundred years previously, proves impossible. But when Heter discovers a stash of parachutes left over from World War II, he wonders if he can devise a beaver airlift. He cleverly constructs boxes that can hold the creatures, be dropped from planes, and open automatically when they land. This translocation was a near-total success; only one out of seventy-six did not make it, and the rest thrived in their new location and restored the balance of the area's ecosystem. Using an earth-toned palette, Uribe's computer-generated, retro-style illustrations superbly reflect both the physical setting and the historical times. Faux artifacts such as notebook pages, hand-tied flies, and even a cliffside depiction of Native artwork decorate some pages. An author's note goes deeper into the events (including problems with translocation) and provides information about humans and animals coexisting peacefully. A bibliography of selected sources completes the book. Betty Carter

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from September 13, 2024

Gr 3-6-Readers will start this book as nonbelievers but soon unearth facts that support the notion that beavers-some of them-can fly in certain instances. In 1948 in McCall, ID, the residents were sick and tired of the damage the beavers were doing to their wetland environment by gnawing all the wood they could find. What to do? Ideas were floated but nothing seemed viable. Truck them out of McCall? The surrounding trees made it impassible by road. In fact, there were no roads where they were going. But one person thought of a very different solution, a preposterous idea-and it worked. This book explores ingenuity, solving problems, group efforts, and perfecting an idea. The art is reflective of the terrain of where the story is set and is soft and engaging. VERDICT Reading this book prior to engaging in experiments is like providing a blueprint for the scientific method; this is a must for elementary collections.-Joan Kindig

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2024
The environmental contributions of beaver dams are well documented. But too many beavers can cause problems, particularly for humans attempting to alter the landscape for their own purposes. Such was the situation in McCall, Idaho, in 1948 when Fish and Game warden Elmo Heter sought a nonlethal way to remove the excess beaver population. Transporting the animals across mountainous terrain to the nearby preserve of Chamberlain Basin, where they had been hunted to near extinction a hundred years previously, proves impossible. But when Heter discovers a stash of parachutes left over from World War II, he wonders if he can devise a beaver airlift. He cleverly constructs boxes that can hold the creatures, be dropped from planes, and open automatically when they land. This translocation was a near-total success; only one out of seventy-six did not make it, and the rest thrived in their new location and restored the balance of the area's ecosystem. Using an earth-toned palette, Uribe's computer-generated, retro-style illustrations superbly reflect both the physical setting and the historical times. Faux artifacts such as notebook pages, hand-tied flies, and even a cliffside depiction of Native artwork decorate some pages. An author's note goes deeper into the events (including problems with translocation) and provides information about humans and animals coexisting peacefully. A bibliography of selected sources completes the book.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)