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As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. (v. 11)

You may be familiar with the idea of smoke jumpers, fire fighters who are parachuted into remote areas of forested wilderness in order to quell the flames, saving not only the trees, but the animals, birds, insects, and the ground cover as well.

But beavers dropped from airplanes in boxes and descending under parachutes to, well, not fight fires, but reduce the damage and provide sanctuary for other creatures? That’s a kind of epiphany!

A few years ago, two scientists, Emily Fairfax and Andrew Whittle, published a scientific paper under the title “Smokey the Beaver,” outlining some amazing facts. Stripping away the academic language, what they reported was that when beavers build dams they also change the environment, storing water by creating ponds and pools and in doing so provide sanctuaries for other animals trying to escape the ravages of fast moving fires that can wipe out millions of acres of greenery. This can be especially crucial during seasons of great drought, because water that would have evaporated or have soaked into the earth instead is stored.

Keep in mind that fire is a natural process. Some seeds dropped by trees will not find a path into the soil and grow new trees if fires are totally eliminated, for instance. But satellite imaging demonstrates that where beavers have been active there are wider pockets of greenery and deeper pockets of groundwater that help in surviving the major fires. This is especially important because many wetlands have been destroyed by development, necessitating the work performed by the beavers.

Fairfax and Whittle studied five major fires in five states that have remote forests that are especially vulnerable to wildfires. One of those fires, known as the Sharps Fire of 2018 in the state of Idaho, benefited from an airlift of beavers over seventy years ago.

That’s right. Airlift. As in parachuting beavers in boxes into remote areas of the Idaho forests. In one of the most isolated areas of the United States, where no roads penetrate into the wild, the Idaho Fish and Game department decided to relocate beavers far away from areas that were being developed. Developers tend to look on the beavers not as cute animals creating dams, but pests that prevent the drainage of areas where houses will be built.

The Fish and Game Department began the program in the late 1940s, using surplus parachutes and experimenting with boxes that the beavers would eat through after landing. The boxes, made of woven willow, however, proved especially delicious. As soon as the beavers were put in the boxes they immediately ate their way out.

So, they had to design a stronger box that took longer to eat through. Instead, it was designed to open after impact. One beaver, nicknamed Geronimo, made several drops to test the box, and once it determined it was safe, the beavers were dropped in droves into the remote forests.

That program ended in 1948, but seventy years later NASA imagery showed that the beavers had been doing good work for generations. Although the Sharps Fire did great damage, the photographs taken from space showed that the areas where beavers had been busiest were as green as ever.

The beavers changed their environment, protecting the land and its inhabitants. And if you think about it, Elijah, who did not parachute to earth in a box but rode up to heaven in a chariot of fire, also changed his spiritual environment, calling down fire from heaven on occasion, and calling King Ahab and Queen Jezebel to account. And when the devastating effects of drought were at their peak, his little oasis, where he was cared for by a foreign widow, was one place where food was plentiful, and where a dead child might be brought back to life.

On this Transfiguration Sunday, we see Jesus for who he really is, Elijah for who he really was, as well as beavers, who are not pests, but saviors for the land.

 (Want to know more? You can find the paper “Smokey the Beaver: beaver-dammed riparian corridors stay green during wildfire throughout the western United States” online by searching for the title. In addition, you can search the earthsky.org website for the article, “Parachuting beavers created a fire-resistant wetland,” for a photograph of the beavers parachuting into the forests and a short NASA film on their benefits to the environment.)