05/17/2026
The Wilderness-management ice jam is showing hints of thawing. It's good news.
It's on a different trail-access issue from bicycle access, namely using chainsaws to keep trails open in an Idaho Wilderness area.
STC doesn't have a position on chainsaws. However Wilderness trails are kept sustainable for recreational use is fine with us, be it with the large crosscut saws the USFS currently allows, or with chainsaws, which the Wilderness Act also allows. (The National Park Service uses chainsaws in its Wilderness areas because the Act allows their use for trail maintenance. But the USFS doesn't.)
A recent Freedom of Information Act request shows that the USFS has been considering relaxing its strict no-chainsaws rule.
Among the 270 pages of disclosed documents, we noted this, in a draft document: "In situations where wilderness character is being degraded, impaired, or threatened due to standing dead, downfallen, and leaning trees which have significantly obstructed or closed system trails and the public purpose for which the area was designated [i.e., recreation] is not being met, administrative action, including the use of prohibited activities [i.e., chainsaw use, as the USFS has traditionally viewed it] may be necessary."
Elsewhere, we read, "The extent of the downed trees on trails due to the amount of wildfire and insect and/or disease killed trees that have fallen is having significant impacts to the primitive recreation quality, in many cases prohibiting use of trails in the Frank [Church–River of No Return Wilderness]. The loss of access is affecting hikers, backpackers, stock supported pack trips, and hunters who are not able to experience the outstanding primitive and unconfined wilderness recreational opportunities that the Frank has to offer."
In 2019, the USFS tried to open trails in Colorado's Weminuche Wilderness with chainsaws. Wilderness purists sued to stop the trail-clearing and the agency immediately backed off and dropped the plan.
This month, Wilderness purists reacted with the same demand after reading the language in the FOIA-disclosed documents: no chainsaws.
But this time, unlike in 2019, the USFS is resisting. It noted of an area surveyed in the Frank Church Wilderness, "Nearly all trails ... had significant levels of deadfall; particularly in areas affected by wildfire, insect and disease, and wind events. It was estimated that, in total, between 80,000 and 110,000 deadfall trees have fallen across the 155 miles of trail."
And it stated, "Gas powered chainsaws are more efficient at cutting deadfall trees than hand tools. They can cut through deadfall 2 to 5 times faster than hand tools and require significantly less energy to operate."
It also stated, "Battery powered chainsaws perform similarly to gas powered chainsaws and can be charged with solar panels." And they are quieter.
By contrast, the documents state, "The use of crosscut saw 'strike teams' ... to clear these trails with crosscut saws was considered [in the USFS's evaluation of alternatives for the Frank Church Wilderness]. This approach was tried ... [elsewhere] beginning in 2016 ... and [was] not successful in removing deadfall."
As stated, these are internal documents disclosed through an FOIA request. They constitute deliberations and analysis, not a decision. See the first link below.
The decision came last week. The USFS is going to go ahead and clear trails in Idaho's Frank Church Wilderness with chainsaws. See the second link below.
How does this count for STC and bicycle access?
First, many Wilderness trails nationwide have disappeared, in large part because the USFS has long refused to use chainsaws to maintain them. When we eventually gain access for human-powered bicycle travel, we'll have access to trails that currently are abandoned or impassible. (Wilderness will remain off-limits for e-biking, because the Wilderness Act of 1964 prohibits motorized travel.)
Second, the USFS, for the first time in our memory, is resisting the forces of purism. Wilderness Watch, which represents the perspective of Wilderness purists, is demanding that the USFS stop planning to clear trails with chainsaws. It argued, in a letter to the USFS, "If chainsaws are used to remove those trees, it is, by definition, no longer Wilderness."
In the past, the USFS has deferred to this perspective. That has now changed.
Links:
https://wildernesswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-FS-WO-03088-F-Final-Response-Records.pdf
https://www.idahostatesman.com/outdoors/article315713241.html
More information in this thread:
https://forestpolicypub.com/2026/05/09/foia-records-reveal-u-s-forest-service-considering-nationwide-chainsaw-use-in-wilderness/
[The following press release and letter to U.S. U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz from nearly 100 conservation organizations, trail groups, and respected U.S. Forest Service specialists with decades of wilderness administration expertise may be of interest to readers of this blog. - mk] For Rele...
