We recently won a significant victory in federal district court that should protect the integrity of the John Muir and Ansel Adams Wildernesses in the Sierra Nevada in California from excessive commercial packstock operations. These wildernesses include high alpine lakes, streams, and meadows that are popular for backpackers and climbers, and also provide habitat for species such as the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep and the Yosemite toad.  Here excessive commercial packstock operations using horses and mules erode meadows, degrade streams, and interfere with the solitude that backcounty recreationists are entitled to experience in wilderness.

We first filed suit seven years ago against the U.S. Forest Service to challenge the agency's failure to limit the damage to these areas from commercial packstock overuse.  Ultimately, the Ninth Circuit agreed that packstock use levels were excessive and harmed the wildernesses.  After the Bush administration came into office, the agency issued a revised plan that actually authorized greater increases in packstock operations, and eliminated conservational provisions such as trailhead quotas that provided some equity in access to the areas.  We filed suit again, and the district court agreed that the revised plan authorizes unnecessary and excessive operations that fail to restore damage in the wildernesses.  At this time, we are working with the Forest Service to develop appropriate means to restore the damaged areas and prevent further damage from commercial packstock operations in wilderness areas.