The Idaho beaver population explosion of 1948 was a big problem. Sarah Palin was still just a twinkle in her father-to-be’s eye, so she couldn’t be hired to shoot them from a helicopter. So Idaho’s Fish and Game department resorted to Plan B: catching the critters, stuffing them into boxes, flying them to remote areas, and dropping them by parachute to their new home. The plan worked!
It was the idea of Elmo Heter, who worked for Idaho Fish and Game at the time, to use excess parachutes to place the beavers in a remote area called the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. Their options were limited, since the area is inaccessible by road.
Using a test beaver named (naturally) Geronimo, Heter tested a specially designed wooden crate that would open upon impact with the ground, cushion the beaver for landing, and keep the beaver in place while transporting so it couldn’t chew through the box.
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