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Warshington
Wait: so you can carry in those high-tech alloy hiking poles and synthetic sleeping bags and featherlight stoves powered by white gas, but chainsaws are still forbidden in "wilderness" ares? Am I missing something?
 
I'll bet they don't like you to chew, either.

Now, to be totally environmentally correct, even a hand saw would be non native and intrusive to a pure wilderness setting. Damn things are made outta metal, ya know. I'll bet the wooden handles on them are another non native species. Leave 'em in the truck.

No cell phones, no watches, no GPS gadgets. No granola or trail mix, no prepared foods of any kind. Catch a bunny, rub two sticks together for fire, char and eat. No water other than what you can slurp up out of a creek. Toilet paper? Use moss. I think people who worship the wilderness owe it to themselves to experience it in as pure a form as possible.

I think the people involved should resort to using leverage and brute force to move the logs... pointed sticks, sharp rocks, fingernails, stuff like that. And no hardhats or other protective clothing. Loin cloths and bare feet. No gloves. No first aid kits. No communication between workers other than mono syllabic grunting and hand gestures. Chanting would be allowed.

Or...you could just leave the blowdown where it is...and walk around the damn thing.
 
Pretty much summarized my whole half-baked argument. "Wilderness" is a sham.

I've pointed that out. It didn't go over too well.

The Park Service, who are the people who wear the Smokey Bear Hats and charge a lot of money for you to go through their gate, do allow chainsaws to be used in THEIR wilderness.

The Forest Service could, if somebody had (name the correct body parts for the gender used) and would stick by their decision. I believe the Regional Forester, who resides in Portland, OR, has that power. But the parts are missing.
 
I'll bet they don't like you to chew, either.

Now, to be totally environmentally correct, even a hand saw would be non native and intrusive to a pure wilderness setting. Damn things are made outta metal, ya know. I'll bet the wooden handles on them are another non native species. Leave 'em in the truck.

No cell phones, no watches, no GPS gadgets. No granola or trail mix, no prepared foods of any kind. Catch a bunny, rub two sticks together for fire, char and eat. No water other than what you can slurp up out of a creek. Toilet paper? Use moss. I think people who worship the wilderness owe it to themselves to experience it in as pure a form as possible.

I think the people involved should resort to using leverage and brute force to move the logs... pointed sticks, sharp rocks, fingernails, stuff like that. And no hardhats or other protective clothing. Loin cloths and bare feet. No gloves. No first aid kits. No communication between workers other than mono syllabic grunting and hand gestures. Chanting would be allowed.

Or...you could just leave the blowdown where it is...and walk around the damn thing.

What , getting in the suv and driving, burning all that fossil fuel , with the window and the ac on didn't want in on the act.
 
I should think that quieter, battery powered saws would be allowed, but nooooooooo. I'm also wondering if a dog pulling a travois would be in violation of The Rules. I could hook up The Used Dog and throw tennis balls down or up the trail. He could pull some of our gear.
 
Bah Det cord is to clean... if yer gonna blast it might as well make a mess of it, besides there's gonna be a whole pile of volunteers to do the clean up...:wink2:

Yeah right I bet they're standing in line haha. I'll volunteer for round trip airfare and lodging but the husky's are a coming with me lmao. :monkey:

I always figured better to do it and ask for forgiveness than be a pawn in a knuckle headed scheme!
 
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I've watched some of the videos, and while it's a real pain in the ass to go about that sort of work with only hand tools I think it's kind of cool that the tradition is being carried on, even if it is in a fairly contrived sort of way. I'd have a go at it myself if we had anything like that around my parts. Seems like some of those folks got a whole lotta knowledge about the older tools and how to go about it.

In a somewhat related topic.... when I was in korea I did a lot of climbing and hiking. Seems like there's a temple on the top of every mountain. The monks that work there often have a good sense of humor - they're people of the earth. I was having a chat with a guy one day and I asked him why they don't put the temples in more accessible places - wasn't it losing them business? He said that it was a good thing the temples are at the top of the mountain. The physical difficulty of getting there deters people who who don't really want to go, and the effort you have to make also prepares you for the spiritual work you have to do when you get there.

You could clear those trails real quick with dirt bikes/choppers and chainsaws. But I guess the work of clearing them by hand preserves a whole lot more than the environment. It's also preserving part of the heritage of working the forest.

Shaun
 
I've watched some of the videos, and while it's a real pain in the ass to go about that sort of work with only hand tools I think it's kind of cool that the tradition is being carried on, even if it is in a fairly contrived sort of way. I'd have a go at it myself if we had anything like that around my parts. Seems like some of those folks got a whole lotta knowledge about the older tools and how to go about it.

In a somewhat related topic.... when I was in korea I did a lot of climbing and hiking. Seems like there's a temple on the top of every mountain. The monks that work there often have a good sense of humor - they're people of the earth. I was having a chat with a guy one day and I asked him why they don't put the temples in more accessible places - wasn't it losing them business? He said that it was a good thing the temples are at the top of the mountain. The physical difficulty of getting there deters people who who don't really want to go, and the effort you have to make also prepares you for the spiritual work you have to do when you get there.

You could clear those trails real quick with dirt bikes/choppers and chainsaws. But I guess the work of clearing them by hand preserves a whole lot more than the environment. It's also preserving part of the heritage of working the forest.

Shaun

I see, well; daylights wasting :monkey:
 
I've watched some of the videos, and while it's a real pain in the ass to go about that sort of work with only hand tools I think it's kind of cool that the tradition is being carried on, even if it is in a fairly contrived sort of way. I'd have a go at it myself if we had anything like that around my parts. Seems like some of those folks got a whole lotta knowledge about the older tools and how to go about it.

In a somewhat related topic.... when I was in korea I did a lot of climbing and hiking. Seems like there's a temple on the top of every mountain. The monks that work there often have a good sense of humor - they're people of the earth. I was having a chat with a guy one day and I asked him why they don't put the temples in more accessible places - wasn't it losing them business? He said that it was a good thing the temples are at the top of the mountain. The physical difficulty of getting there deters people who who don't really want to go, and the effort you have to make also prepares you for the spiritual work you have to do when you get there.

You could clear those trails real quick with dirt bikes/choppers and chainsaws. But I guess the work of clearing them by hand preserves a whole lot more than the environment. It's also preserving part of the heritage of working the forest.

Shaun

One of the saw instructors has a spud for removing bark. He bought it from a museum somewhere in the east. It was made during the
1700s. He put a new handle on it, and we were using it.

Our area is a 2 hour drive on pavement, and then often another hour on not so good roads. We only had 5 people in the saw school. To the north and south, they turn people down for saw training. We're kind of too far from the cities to get "crowds" of volunteers. Our scenery is a little less oooh and ahhh worthy than the north. But our area is also way less crowded.
 
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One of the saw instructors has a spud for removing bark. He bought it from a museum somewhere in the east. It was made during the
1700s. He put a new handle on it, and we were using it.

That's pretty cool! When you take a longer view, this current era of technology and fossil fuel powered machinery is pretty much just a flash in the pan. Nobody knows how long it'll last, and while we hope that some amazing discovery will keep it going forever it seems much more likely we'll just guzzle the lot down and end up pretty much back where we were. When that happens, it'll be nice if we have at least a remote trace of the knowledge, skill and understanding that was carefully built up over thousands of years, passed down from one generation to another. God bless those who carry that torch.

Shaun
 
The same guy made a underbucker out of airplane grade aluminum. Those are a wheel with grooves in it to hold the saw when you have to come up from the bottom, mounted on a bar with a chisel like tip so you can pound it into the log. The wheel is mounted so it can be moved up and down on the bar. It's pretty neat.
 

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