In 1948, Idaho officials parachuted 76 beavers into a forest they’d deemed dead, a last-ditch effort born of conflict with local residents. The rodents were meant to restore collapsed waterways, but nobody predicted what they would ultimately create.
In August 1948, a twin-engine plane lifted off from a small airstrip in McCall, Idaho, carrying eight wooden crates. Inside were 76 live beavers. The pilot climbed to about 700 feet over the Chamberlain Basin, a remote valley in the mountains of central Idaho, and the crew pushed the crates out one at a time. Each crate had a parachute strapped to the top. When the last parachute settled, 75 beave…