Chainsaws in Alpine National Park?

Need to emphasize the word CANNOT
Not just you cannot cut wood, but you cannot even carry a chainsaw with you.

What do you do if you are about to drive through the park with a chain saw on board? Leave it on the side of the road??
I was of the understanding that they had to broken down, ie bar & chain removed, not sure where I heard that so don’t ask for confirmation.

While rules may state you cannot have a chainsaw in nat parks, if it is carried out of sight, then they cannot see it, so no probs.......common sense prevails.

Was talking to a ranger down near Talbingo a few yrs back who had just had a go at a bloke who was cleaning his chainsaw and he confirmed that as long as it was out of sight it was OK.

I have never heard of rangers doing spot checks and searching peoples cars for a chainsaw. But there will always be a jerk who uses one in a nat park, and no amount of warnings will stop those ones.

A conundrum, to be sure!

How about turn around and find another way? Of course if absolutely necessary I'm sure a fair explanation should find a reasonable exception

Cheers,

Mark.

I believe NSW has a similar policy. I think you can cut dead fall for a cooking fire but I am not certain of that. I think it depends on the location of the park. I guess a phone call to your particular Park Ranger can answer that for you.
A couple of year ago a small gp of us entered a NP in Western NSW, the day before the area had a big storm and we were first into the park. There were about 30 trees down and so with a chain saw cleared them, took 5 hours. We cut some old dead fall for a fire (figured we'd earned it ) When we left the park and had mobile service we contacted the ranger and told him what we had done ie cleared the track. He was most grateful and thanked me profusely.

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Trouper, you may be missing a point. The Victorian regulations I quoted above relate to "an area set aside.....for use as firewood". Such areas are "Available Firewood" areas where firewood has been deposited by the Ranger for use by the public. It does not extend to cutting "dead fall" outside of this allocated areas (wood-pits)
NSW park regulations may differ from Vic.
Agree that contacting the Ranger or admin may be best.

"Of course, it is always possible for a Ranger to erect a "No Chainsaw" sign anywhere he chooses."

That is absolutely NOT the case. Parks Victoria staff do not have that power - it is set by the National Parks regulations.

The trouble with speaking to someone is they often don't quote regulations, but more their own interpretation of them.
I carry a chainsaw in the front of my offroad van and if I need firewood, I'll cut it before entering a nat park, and as far as a ranger goes, he doesn't know, or need to know, if I do or don't have a chainsaw in my possession .

Silkwood,
From my observations the regs vary according to the NP. If you google Wyperfield NP for instance the Safety & Regs section says you can't bring generators or chainsaws in. Do the same search on Alpine NP and it addresses firearms and pets but no reference to chainsaws. The Alpine NP is obviously a heavily wooded area and it covers a massive geographical area. The Wyperfield is arid country and and one can understand they don't want wood being cut where it is scarce. I can assure you that most 4wd visitors carry and use a chainsaw in the Alpine NP for both track clearing and firewood - me included. I have used mine in the presence of rangers on already felled timber with no comment. They are very particular about campfires though and one even used a pyrometer near us last year on a fire that was left. It was cool to the touch but apparently it was still smouldering deep down and the ranger was furious. The conditions at the time were quite damp and it was still cool so the risks were minimal but nevertheless it was made very clear that they are unforgiving on unattended fires. Fair enough too as we have all seen some irresponsible behaviour with campfires. Anyway I hope this assists.
Ken

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I recognise that situation Nifty.
The 'Parks' concern is largely about preventing people from hacking into standing trees or even cutting fallen wood that they wish to retain as wildlife shelter.
To this end, they may ban importing firewood so that people cannot claim "Oh, I brought this into the park with me!" when actually they had felled it within the park. Yes, it disadvantages the conscientious visitor from bringing their own firewood.
What the park may sometimes then do is allow the import of 'milled' timber only, i.e. offcuts from a sawmill or building site which clearly is not natural tree wood.
In fact, in some parks I have visited, milled timber is the only wood provided in the park 'woodpile' that I referred to in my Reply above.

The legislative Regulations are fairly straightforward but individual parks often, even usually, adopt administration 'rules' of their own to control what they perceive as necessary. Accordingly, you may encounter tighter (or even more generous) rules being applied in individual parks, and fair enough if that's what it takes. This has been my experience and alluded to by a ranger more than once. This is despite 'Dave Trees' refutation above.

Doesn't make it right, though, does it?

If the sign to the NP says "Chainsaws Prohibited" then they are prohibited.

Now I agree that carrying one in transit or for track clearing emergencies is one thing, but blatant use where they are prohibited is another.

Maybe the rangers didn't want a confrontation. I have overheard a NPWS staff briefing in the field where that was the advice - avoid confrontation.

Maybe the rangers didn't say anything but you can be sure their observations went into some database somewhere and that will be one more click in the ratchet toward more restrictions, closures or fees.