Back in 1948 in Idaho, the town of McCall, Idaho, was booming. It’s a beautiful area, surrounded by mountains, forests, and nestled next to the picturesque Payette Lake. However, the same scenery that attracts humans is also prime habitat for beavers. And beavers doing beaver things tend to annoy the humans who have moved into places beavers live.
But beavers are also very helpful to ecosystems. So instead of just killing the beavers in the McCall area, the Idaho Fish and Game Department tried to figure out how to move the beavers out of McCall and into areas where beaver populations weren’t as strong. They found a likely new home for the beavers in the Chamberlain Basin, which is very remote. It seemed like a great idea.
But initial attempts to pack the captured beavers into the remote area on horseback didn’t go well. Beavers overheat easily when they’re not in the water, and most of the beavers they tried to move died along the way. Keep in mind this was all happening shortly after World War II, and there were quite a few war vets in the Fish and Game ranks. And these vets put their heads together and came up with a plan.
The vets figured if parachutes worked to get them behind the lines in Normandy, they’d probably work to get beavers into the remote backcountry. They devised boxes to hold the beavers that would spring open when they landed, and the plan was launched. I wish I had more time to go into the details, but to be honest, a YouTube video by The Fat Electrician tells the story better than I could, so look it up. It’s fascinating as well as entertaining. Just search for Band of Beavers.
Maybe watch it Monday on Memorial Day.
