Northwest Question - Cutting back bark on softwood blowdown logs

[peakbagger]

While out backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington, we noticed that logs that have fallen across the trail were cut once and then about a 3" strip of bark was cut back from the cut. It looks like a knife or chisel was used to cut the bark back as in many cases we could see a score mark on the wood under the bark at the cut. This is federal land, a mix of park and forest service. We also had a short visit over in Olympic National Park and did not see this. 

Any idea of what the purpose of cutting wood back like that?. The trees are is left on the ground and never salvaged. In many cases they just cut a short section out of the log and then do that bark cut back on both ends. 

[reride82]

My guess is the trail maintenance crew is using hand says, and as such want to keep them sharp longer. So they debark with an axe or something similar before they cut out the section of the downed tree that is blocking the trail.

Levi