Pack Goat Forest Closures
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Pack goat forest closures continue to impact hiking and hunting with pack goats. Are the restrictions necessary? What can be done about it?
From casual day hikers to fishermen, hunters, outdoor enthusiasts, and those who like to meander in the backcountry, the use of pack goats has seen a surge in interest and employment. It’s easy to imagine these charismatic caprines helping you pack in and keeping you company on a long trek. Although pack goats have carried supplies for people in parts of the world for a long time, they’ve become more mainstream and recreational in the U.S. in the last 10 years.
NAPgA Chris Gifford, president of the North American Packgoat Association (NAPgA), says that the goats enjoy having a job. NAPgA membership numbers range from 200 to 400, with a good core group of members that help preserve this hobby. Their Facebook group, North American Packgoat Association- Discussion Group, has nearly 5,000 members. The organization was founded in 1999, partly in response to the forest service’s threat of imposing restrictions on pack goats. Today, they’re still fighting that same fight.
Domestic Sheep vs. Goats
Domestic sheep can carry Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovi) and Pasteurellaceae bacteria. When bighorn sheep are exposed to these bacteria, they can develop severe pneumonia and die. Depending on the region, bighorn sheep can be classified as Least Concern all the way to Endangered.
Gifford says, “It’s pretty well accepted that sheep pose a greater risk to wild bighorn sheep than pack goats, since they have a much higher prevalence of carrying the Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae pathogen. Goats and sheep are similar enough in their eyes that it’s just easy to piggyback on the fact that domestic sheep pose a high risk, so they like to lump pack goats in and place bans on both goats and sheep in national parks.”
According to a National Wildlife Health Center Newsletter article from the United States Geological Survey, “Pneumonia is a challenging issue for bighorn sheep managers because of the difficulty associated with identifying the disease agent, remote locations, and limited management options.”
Gifford says, “While research has shown M. ovi can be transmitted from goats to bighorn sheep that are penned together in captivity for several months, there has never been a documented case of M. ovi being transmitted from a pack goat to a bighorn sheep in the wild. For the pathogen to be transmitted, all of the following must be present: (1) a domestic goat infected with the M. ovi pathogen (2) must come into direct (nose to nose) contact with a wild bighorn sheep (3) the infected goat must be actively shedding the virus (4) the pathogen must be transmitted to the presumably healthy wild bighorn sheep (5) the infected bighorn sheep must return to a herd of wild bighorn sheep and (6) this process is repeated with the infected bighorn sheep serving as the carrier.”
Gifford adds that the public should care about the issue of pack goat forest closures because they’re taking away rights to public land “with very minimal, if any, scientific evidence to do so.”
The National Forest Management Act requires the U.S. Forest Service to revise the plans for the National Forests at least every 15 years. Gifford says that NAPgA has met with Forest Service personnel, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and biologists who’ve been studying bighorn sheep in the past. He says that instead of making permanent science-based decisions, the forest service creates temporary bans on goats in certain areas that last 2 to 3 years.
What’s further frustrating to Gifford’s group is that large herds of 200 to 800 head of domestic sheep are currently being raised on or next to public lands legally Both sexes of bighorn sheep go on forays while looking for food and during the rut season. Individual bighorn sheep will leave the herd for different durations, with rams known to go on 17-mile forays. These penned domestic sheep, which aren’t in close proximity to humans, are more likely to interact with a bighorn sheep than the domestic bonded pack goats, Gifford explains.
Prohibited and Restricted Access
“As of this writing, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, Gila National Forest, Bridger-Teton National Forest, and Blue Mountains National Forest are all in various stages of the forest plan revision process,” Gifford says. “It’s fairly certain that all of those forests will attempt to restrict or prohibit the use of pack goats either on the entire forest or within portions of those forests in or where bighorn sheep are located. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently prohibited pack goat use on nearly 750,000 acres of wildlife area lands they manage.”
The Forest Service continues to extend an emergency temporary order prohibiting the use of pack goats in a large portion of the Inyo National Forest. The Shoshone National Forest implemented a burdensome and expensive permit process that goat owners must complete in order to take their pack goats in certain areas of the forest. In June of 2023, the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area (HCNRA) in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest was part of the pack goat forest closures in an emergency temporary order. Even though the HCNRA was closed to pack goats in June 2023, unfortunately, pneumonia was detected in wild bighorns, and a die-off occurred.
How to Help
Gifford says that those who want to get involved can leave public comments or become a member of NAPgA. To learn more, visit their website Napga.org.
Each park has a separate place to make public comments and different periods when comments can be made. There are no set schedules for taking public comments, so it can be difficult for the general public, who might like a say on how the forests are used, to know when and how they can do so. NAPgA members alert each other as they become aware of those times but are often blindsided by new restrictions.
Ironically, pack goats were integral to the study of the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep when John Mionczynski used his goat, Wethervane, to pack in his supplies while researching the wild sheep for the U.S. Forest Service and Wyoming Fish and Game Department. He subsequently wrote the book, The Pack Goat, which helped make hiking with pack goats popular.
KENNY COOGAN earned a master’s degree in Global Sustainability and has published over 400 articles on pets, livestock, and gardening. He lives on a 1-acre homestead with a flock of Pekin ducks, managing a permaculturestyle landscape. Coogan also runs a successful carnivorous plant nursery in Tampa. Listen to Coogan co-host podcasts by visiting Mother Earth News and Friends Podcast
Originally published in the 2024 Winter issue of Goat Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
