For a tool, the chainsaw has achieved considerable fame: at least since “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” it has become an integral part of pop culture. It serves as a masked cannibal’s favorite assassination tool in the 1974 horror film not known for its dialogue – which is apparently so impressive that the chainsaw has since been used for metal bands and computer games as well. She has even made it into the competition. With her help, muscle-bound Timber athletes cut slices out of the trunks in a matter of seconds. Or to put it more feuilletonistically: Similar to the V8 sports car, the chainsaw with its smell of petrol and brutally controlled roaring stands for the pure masculine.
However, this fortress of masculinity could now be faltering. The Bavarian State Forests have ordered 300 power saws. In doing so, one is consistently continuing the path “towards genuine sustainability” and replacing “fossil energy with modern battery technology,” according to a statement. Initially, the devices are to be used for lighter work; In view of technical progress, however, the use of electrically operated saws in timber harvesting seems possible “in just a few years”.
Not only for film cannibals, whose bloodlust would be disturbed by long loading times, such news initially sound like a threat instead of progress. First the e-car replaced the diesel, now the chainsaw has to do the same! Some might even sense a form of cancel culture. According to the state forests, there are very pragmatic reasons for purchasing cordless saws: They are superior to their conventional counterparts because they are lighter, emission-free, have less vibration and are cheaper to refuel. And because the future always has its origins in the present, the state forests have also upgraded virtually: In the Buchenbühl training center, prospective foresters are to learn how to harvest wood without using fossil fuels or batteries. With virtual reality glasses on, they then go to the pixel forest for training cases of bits and bytes trees.