Hey Sawbill, I'd like to hunt your country sometime, Wilderness or not. I leaned the other way on the chainsaw vs. crosscut issue and you know what? I guess I was persuaded by passionate Wilderness lovers. Again, I had to draw the line somewhere in order to protect the Wilderness, true or not it's all we got. There are plenty of Wilderness Managers who are dealing with this dilema and are leaning the other way. I suppose if your out in the Wilderness and trying to hunt elk and someone starts a chainsaw nearby that wouldn't bother some but I'll stick with the folks who prefer otherwise. Out of 3 districts 2/3rds are not Wilderness trails and we cleared just as many miles in the Wilderness with x-cut saws as out. People who come to work in the Wilderness are usually proud of keeping a traditional tool going and I'm always turning folks away.

I know smokejumpers who don't mind jumping out of a plane with a x-cut too. We send a lot of them to the smokejumpers in the off season to sharpen as they are experts. Someone said earlier that there have been fatalities dut to firefighters having to use x-cuts but I know of none. When your under a tree with a chainsaw you can't hear the sounds of a cracking tree.

Yeh Sawbill, you picked up on poor PJ who I was just poking at a little cause he seemed to like poking at everyone else. Take it easy.