RIVER HEALER CLINT PACKO OF FREESTONE AQUATICS IS RESTORING RIVERS – ONE PROJECT AT A TIME.
by Colorado TU Staff
“O
ne of the penalties of an ecological education,” wrote Aldo Leopold, “is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” For many naturalists, that education leads them to improve their own stewardship and to act as advocates for the natural world. For a select few, like Clint Packo, it leads them to become healers: practitioners of the art and science of ecological restoration. Packo’s journey to operating one of the leading river restoration firms in the nation began – as it does for so many river conservationists – with a fly rod in hand. With precocious skill as an angler and in helping translate that skill to success for his clients, Clint as a young teenager joined the guide staff of The Flyfisher Limited in Cherry Creek in the early 1990s, working alongside such future luminaries of 20
High Country Angler • Summer 2022
Colorado’s fly-fishing industry as Charlie Craven and brothers Mike and Todd Clough. His success there led him to be recruited by a group of doctors to help run a group of new fly shops they planned to open in the Carolinas. When family drew him back to Colorado, he was hired by Orvis to open their Park Meadows – and later their Cherry Creek – stores in Denver. Beyond his growing success and reputation in the fly-fishing retail sector, Packo continued to work as a guide, including with Breckenridge Outfitters as they won multiple Orvis “outfitter of the year” awards. He started his own outfitting business, Freestone Outfitters, and worked with Denver-area shops Anglers All, Trouts, and both Orvis Company Stores in providing Colorado guide services. Clint built the company’s staff of guides and collection of permitted waters unwww.HCAezine.com