Shortly after World War II, many places in the U.S.
experienced a housing boom. McCall, Idaho was one of these places. The trouble
was McCall was also dealing with a beaver boom. Beavers toppled newly planted
orchards and built dams which flooded new basements. When beavers set up
housekeeping in the wilerness, they improve the ecosystem. When they move into
subdivisions, they can be terrible neighbors. So, Idaho Fish and Game decided
to move 76 beavers to the back woods. By dropping them from a plane. They built
special beaver parachute boxes designed to securely land the semi-aquatic rodents and burst open, so they'd essentially hit the ground running. Their test “pilot,”
nicknamed Geronimo, was safely dropped so many times, he actually liked it and
would waddle back to his beaver box for another ride. All but one of the 76 urban beavers
were relocated without incident to the Chamberlain Basin, where their descendants
are probably still redecorating.
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