Dispute Centers on Pack Stations

Lawmakers seek to fend off restrictions for backcountry horsemen.

by Michael Doyle
Fresno Bee - August 3, 2003

A Sierra Nevada pack animal dispute is hauling in lawmakers and investigators alike.

The lawmakers want legislation protecting pack-and-saddle operators. The investigators are pursuing complaints at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. And park managers, who are caught in the middle, say they simply are trying to balance sometimes competing interests.

"We're supportive of stock animal use, when it's reasonable for the resource and it's safe," said Richard Martin, superintendent of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks. "We have what we believe is an excellent program for managing stock use in our parks."

But in recent weeks, the parks' operations have been scrutinized by Interior Department officials. The investigators, in turn, were called in by Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa -- one of the congressmen now pushing legislation on behalf of the pack-and-saddle operators.

"Unfortunately," Radanovich said, "livestock use is under fire from national environmental fund-raising organizations who seek to restrict access to federal lands."

Radanovich's views carry special weight, because he chairs the House subcommittee overseeing national parks and public lands. He introduced the new bill on the pack operations' behalf, and he summoned the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General.

The investigators visited the Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks about two weeks ago, reviewing allegations first raised by Jerry Page.

Page says he lost his contract to run the Wolverton Pack Station at Sequoia because he had complained about park management.

He asserts that park officials had been costing him business by permitting helicopter use in wilderness areas; when he complained, he said, the park refused to renew his concession permit that expired last December.

"They made it so bad for us that we couldn't operate," said Page, who ran the Wolverton Pack Station for seven years.

Martin replied that Page "has no facts to substantiate his allegation."

The superintendent said the park's occasional use of helicopters for supplying backcountry operations was neither improper nor a form of competition with Page's horses.

He added that the Wolverton Pack Station was shut down because it became nearly surrounded by three roads carrying potentially dangerous traffic.

"We're a little baffled by the situation with Mr. Page," Martin said.

As this local dispute unfolds, Radanovich and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, are seeking to shape the broader national environment with what they call their "right to ride legislation." It addresses the private operators who provide horses and mules for guided trips that can last anywhere from an hour to a week.

For instance, commercial companies in the June Lake and Mammoth Lakes areas obtain business permits to run pack trips into the Yosemite high country.

"They've always been good to work with, and we have good relations with them," Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said.

Gediman said he understands the Yosemite packing operations have remained "fairly constant" in recent years.

At the Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks, there are mixed reports on business. Page said that, until the last year, his Wolverton Pack Station business remained fairly steady, with about 40 day riders using horses and five mule trips a week.

Park managers, though, say they've seen a falloff in business.

"There's been a long decline in pack and animal use, that goes back 30 or 40 years," Martin said. "The primary factors are not [our] regulations, but the fact that fewer people are interested in riding pack animals, and the increasing costs involved."

Regulations, nonetheless, have been the focus of Radanovich's staff in recent years.

Working closely with Visalia attorney Richard Cochran, who is active with the Backcountry Horsemen of California, Radanovich and Nunes drafted the bill introduced Monday.

The legislation seeks to fend off potential restrictions. It states that "as a general rule," all trails now used by pack and saddle stock "shall remain open and accessible" for that use. The bill also states that reducing pack animal use can only occur following formal environmental reviews.

"Our lands were first explored and established using horses and mules," Nunes said. "To restrict that use is to turn our backs on our heritage."

But environmentalists and park managers note the heritage can have a shadow. Pack animals can trample sensitive meadows, drop manure in precious waterways and churn up dust on popular hiking trails.

"Apparently, some commercial outfitters have incorrectly interpreted the widespread public support for reasonable limits and controls as a universal desire among hikers to see all recreational stock use eliminated," the Lake Tahoe-based High Sierra Hikers Association states on its Internet site.

Even a sweeping wilderness bill introduced Friday by Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, while extending wilderness protection to 2.4 million acres of public land in California, leaves untouched commercial pack operations.

"Getting pack horses back here is one of the best uses of wilderness," said Paul McFarland of the Lee Vining-based environmental group Friends of the Inyo.