In 1948, Idaho officials used World War II parachutes to drop 76 beavers into the wilderness in one of America’s strangest conservation experiments

At the time, Idaho was struggling with growing beaver populations in populated areas. The animals were damaging irrigation systems and plantings, even though their dams could be enormously beneficial to ecosystems. Wildlife officials wanted to move the beavers to remote parts of the state where their engineering skills could actually help the landscape.

The problem was getting them there.