Packstock Center of Excellence
The Pack Stock Center of Excellence provides regional coordination for the efficient utilization of pack stock program resources to support the efforts of wilderness managers in preserving wilderness character.
The Pacific Southwest Region Pack Stock Center of Excellence also ensures ongoing capability for use of primitive skills and tools, by offering high quality, hands-on pack stock and primitive skills education, practical experience, youth engagement, community outreach, and field-going services in support of fire, ecosystem, and wilderness management.
Learn more about our services by selecting any of the following links:
The Pack Stock Center of Excellence serves as a one-stop shop for all pack stock related needs, operational and training. By capitalizing on the strengths and abilities of the seven stock programs remaining in Region 5, the Center functions as a networking system that managers can use when in need pack stock related services. This approach increases the Region’s ability to mobilize stock resources quickly and efficiently and improves our ability to accomplish a wide variety of projects using primitive, low-impact methods. Services include:
- Wildland fire support
- Training (stock use/primitive tools)
- Trail project support
- Resource project support
- Project oversight
- Technical expertise and consulting
- Development of safety protocols and Job Hazard Analyses (JHAs)
- Community outreach and education
- Law enforcement support
Safety is a key component of all Pack Stock Center of Excellence activities. The Center facilitates a culture of safety relative to pack stock use and horsemanship by providing technical expertise, leadership and guidance including:
- A Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) template for stock use and handling for the Region
- Coordination with equestrian partner organizations and volunteers
- Training for agency staff and partners on safe use of pack stock, riding animals and primitive tools
- Recommendations for safety equipment and tack
Watch Out for Falling Trees
An Ongoing Alert for heightened danger from falling dead trees remains in effect in many areas of the National Forests. Over 100 million trees killed or weakened by drought and bark beetles remain a falling hazard.
Please be cautious when visiting National Forests, especially in the southern and central Sierra Nevada, where mortality has been highest.
Be vigilant of possible hazards and remember the Watch Out tips. Trees can fall anywhere at any time.
When planning a trip to the National Forest, please contact the local office for more information on areas of heightened danger from tree mortality. Thank you and have a safe and fun visit to the National Forests.
More Safety Tips
The Center of Excellence’s education and training offerings focus primarily on the use of pack stock as a minimum impact, traditional tool. Additional emphasis is placed on the Wilderness Act and the use of primitive tools. Courses are taught using a combination of experienced Forest Service packers and resource specialists, as well as expert instructors from wilderness and pack stock partner organizations.
Agency personnel and partners who may benefit from the Center’s learning opportunities include wilderness managers, trail crews, fire personnel, specialists from a variety of natural resource disciplines, safety officers, and volunteers.
Following is a listing of the types of educational and training programs the Center may offer, depending on demand. Basic Horsemanship Training clinics will be announced in the spring and are open to agency employees and partners. Please contact SM.FS.PackStockCOE@USDA.gov for information about how to apply.
- Introduction to the Wilderness Act
- Leave-No-Trace (LNT) and Low Impact Camping with Stock
- Use of Primitive Tools
- Cross-cut Saw Certification
- Fundamentals of Safe Stock Handling
- Basics of Freight: Building Safe and Secure Loads
- Safe Trailering Practices
- Basic Horsemanship
- Basics of Veterinary Care in the Field
- Trail Safety
- Appropriate Behavior Working Near Stock
- Stock Use in Wildland Fire Settings
- Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics Using Stock
- Fire Certification for Packers
The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The Pacific Southwest Region’s goal is to retain and restore ecological resilience of the National Forest lands to achieve sustainable ecosystems that provide a broad range of services to humans and other organisms. Ecologically healthy and resilient land-scapes, rich in biodiversity, have greater capacity to adapt and thrive in the face of natural disturbances and large scale threats to sustainability, especially under changing and uncertain future environmental conditions.
Maintaining a connection with the public for whom we serve remains vital to achieving the Agency’s mission of “caring for the land and serving people.”
The Pack Stock Center of Excellence participates in a number of parades and special events each year. Agency pack strings, whether participating in the nationally televised Rose Parade, a local July 4th parade or a community event, provide an invaluable opportunity to interact with the public and remind them of the agency’s long history using traditional tools to care for public lands as land stewards.
Appearances at special events such as the California Horse Expo or the Backcountry Horsemen’s annual rendezvous provide excellent opportunities to share traditional skills, educational messages about leave no trace techniques and wilderness ethics and engage in face-to-face dialogues about Forest Service lands.
For information about requesting project support from the Pack Stock Center of Excellence, please contact SMS.FS.PackStockCOE@USDA.gov.
As those with skill and experience working with traditional tools, particularly pack stock, begin to retire and society’s reliance on technology increases, we risk losing this unique skillset and the great capability pack stock offer for wilderness management. The Pack Stock Center of Excellence seeks to address this challenge in two ways:
- Each year the Center recruits and trains four apprentices (two in the North and two in the South part of the Region). Interns are provided with the opportunity to work with and learn from seasoned packers.
- Region 5 Forests that do not have their own pack stock resources may request support from the Center. Center pack stock resources can be mobilized, providing forests with the capacity to support and resupply youth crews working on projects in remote wilderness locations.
The Center strives to develop a next generation of packers, ensure the long legacy of pack stock use on public lands and expose youth to wilderness and primitive tools. These early experiences have the power to instill a lifelong land ethic and connection with public lands as places for recreating, earning and volunteering that may last a lifetime.
