In Northwest Montana, Storm-snarled Trails Test Durability of Wilderness Chainsaw Ban

In Northwest Montana, Storm-snarled Trails Test Durability of Wilderness Chainsaw Ban

Every spring for the past four decades, as the high-elevation snowpack recedes and the trails melt out, Jack Rich has pioneered a route from his guest ranch near Seeley Lake up and over Pyramid Pass, a prominent western gateway to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. To clear the mainline stock trail, he’s cut through toppled fir and jackstrawed lodgepole, hacking through hazard trees and mangled snags and pick-up-stick piles of windthrown elm. …