STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

In the late 1940s the Idaho Fish and Game Department began receiving complaints about property damage from beavers cutting down trees and creating dams in southern Idaho where people were moving in the aftermath of World War II.

Their solution was to scoop up the offending beavers and relocate them into the backcountry via parachutes since transporting beavers by truck and on mules was expensive and resulted in a high mortality.

At least 76 Beavers were moved from the Mcall area to the Chamberlain Basin in central Idaho using leftover World War II parachutes and lidless wooden boxes. Some were also dropped in Blaine County where they helped create wetlands and slow down rivers and creeks so there’d be less erosion during rapid snowmelt or extreme rain events.

Now, Sawtooth Circus School founder Paul Blair, who was in the circus for 15 years and teaches hula hooping for adults and children, is throwing an Airborne Beaver Fest to celebrate the parachuting beavers.

Blair, who performed at The Community Library’s book Around the Block festival last August, is staging the Airborne Beaver Fest to commemorate the badass Idaho beavers who parachuted out of planes and helped the Sawtooth ecosystem on Saturday, Aug. 17.

The festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17, at Ketchum’s Forest Service Park at First and Washington streets. And it includes a beaver costume contest, music, unicycling, juggling, face painting, tug-of-war and even a build-your-own parachute contest for kids for a beaver effigy. Patrons can learn the Beaver Dance, build eco crafts, play games and listen to music in this homegrown celebration.

“We will have a juggling and hula hoop show at 1 and 4:30 p.m. We will have music and presentations the rest of the time,” said Blair. “We will have a reading of the sky diving beavers, a children’s book on the topic. We will have beaver dance lessons, the ERC will be doing programs, games and crafts and there will be lots of crafts provided by Eco Orbits tours, giant bubbles, cornhole and other picnic games. And we will have raffles for prizes from such stores as NourishMe, Chapter One bookstore and The Toy Store.”

Come Sunday, interested beaver fans will carpool to the 4th of July Creek trail in hopes of seeing real life beavers in action.

Want to know more? Want to help? Contact Paul@muditalife.com or 208-913-9212.