[pct-l] Trail clearing with horses and chainsaws

Hank Magnuski hankm at mtinet.com
Tue Sep 25 11:32:11 CDT 2012


A sharp, well maintained crosscut saw handled by a trained crew can be a very 
reasonable alternative to a heavy chainsaw that needs fuel and pack animals 
around to haul it from point to point on a trail.

Believe me, they sing.

Hank


On Tue, 25 Sep 2012, Devon Taig wrote:

> As I was walking across Oregon this year, I ran across a trail maintenance
> group (I think from the PCTA) near Three Fingered Jack.  They didn't have
> horses or chainsaws and were facing the daunting task of clearing dozens of
> trees using handsaws that had apparently fallen during a wind storm the
> previous winter.  When I inquired why they weren't using horses and
> chainsaws, I was surprised to hear that they were banned on that part of
> the trail.
> I'm not clear as to why such a ban would exist in the context of people who
> are actively performing trail maintenance.  It would seem to be at least an
> order of magnitude easier to clear a trail with a chain saw and a horse
> than by hand.  I would like to think that when I donate to organizations
> that do trail work that they aren't hamstrung by federal bureaucracy that
> impedes getting important work done.  Can anyone shed some light on this?
>
> Devon




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