Pack Forest Series: 'Start of Camp'

ESF has practiced experiential learning from the beginning
4/4/2011

• ESF Centennial Celebration website

"You cannot do forestry without being out in the woods." - ESF Provost Bruce Bongarten

Pack Forest near Warrensburg, N.Y., is one place where forestry students gained their hands-on experience, much of which was documented in films created by Professor Svend Heiberg between 1930 and 1950.

Throughout April, we'll highlight some of that film footage each week. We begin the Pack Forest Series with a piece called, "Start of Camp."

Pack Forest, in the southern Adirondacks, is now home to an environmental camp for teenagers. It has been operated by the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) since1998.

The camp is on 2,500 acres of woodlands in Warren County. The property includes an 85-acre lake and countless miles of trails leading to mountain vistas, marshes and the banks of the Hudson River. The DEC is using the property under an agreement with the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, which owns the land. Pack Forest was named after Charles Lathrop Pack, an Adirondack landowner who donated the land to the College to be used for research and training in the field of environmental studies.