For the last three years, the buzz of chainsaws has droned over the San Cristóbal valley as part of a major Forest Service thinning project to protect the area from wildfire. But for the first time, the people running those saws are all from Northern New Mexico. "The Forest Service has been having success with the out-of-town guys for a long time," said Mark Schuetz, owner of the thinning business Watershed Dynamics. "We feel honored that the agencies have heard us and opened the door to this." In a normal year, Schuetz tries to keep his Taos County-based thinning crew busy by piecing together one- or two-acre thinning jobs around homes on private land. It's important work, but it can be inconsistent and hard to keep crew members busy.