Friends of the Clearwater Media Director, Paul Busch, submitted this letter to the editor.
There is something satisfying about cutting through a downed tree with a cross-cut saw. It’s satisfying because with only the power of your body, you overcome the main hurdle to accessing America’s enormous wilderness trail system—a downed tree three feet in diameter. It’s also shocking, because as you finish there is usually a loud POP, and a THUD, and then silence.
That was my experience last summer with the Idaho Trails Association (ITA), working on opening up remote trails on wild public lands in Idaho. ITA and many other groups use traditional tools in wilderness areas in accordance with the 1964 Wilderness Act. For those who don’t know, the Wilderness Act largely limits people to using non-motorized and non-mechanized tools, excepting emergencies.
Clearing a trail the “wilderness way” is an enlightening experience. It builds skills as well as camaraderie. When you are using a cross-cut saw, you can actually hear one another. You move at a pace that is slower, yes, but that is a positive. There is a sense of play and problem-solving. Of course it’s hard work. You sweat and get blisters and splinters and curse at the sap-soaked fir trees blocking your way. But it’s the kind of work that is central to our human story: communal, slow, thoughtful, and outdoors.
Adopting chainsaw use in wilderness isn’t a solution to an emergency. It’s an expression of the values of urgency and power above patience and restraint. Of course we should better fund trail work. And of course more people should have the privilege of being out in Idaho’s Big Wild. But doing it the Wilderness Way is a reward in its own right, an expression of commitment to our values, and a precept enshrined in the Wilderness Act.
