GC: n

CT: Clearcutting means the felling and removal of all trees from a given tract of forest. One forestry expert refers to the practice as “an ecological trauma that has no precedent in nature except for a major volcanic eruption.” Clearcutting can destroy an area’s ecological integrity in a number of ways, including:

• the destruction of buffer zones which reduce the severity of flooding by absorbing and holding water;
• the immediate removal of forest canopy, which destroys the habitat for many rainforest-dependent insects and bacteria;
• the removal of forest carbon sinks, leading to global warming through the increased human-induced and natural carbon dioxide build-up in the atmosphere;
• the elimination of fish and wildlife species due to soil erosion and habitat loss;
• the removal of underground worms, fungi and bacteria that condition soil and protect plants growing in it from disease;
• the loss of samall-scale economic opportunities, such as fruit-picking, sap extraction, and rubber tapping; and
• the destruction of aesthetic values and recreational opportunities.

Intact, healthy forests play a large role in supporting all forms of life on Earth. To environmentalists, the finality of clearcutting is viewed as an ecological tragedy.

S: http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/fcut.asp (last access: 17 February 2015)

N: 1. clear (adj): late 13c., “bright,” from Old French cler “clear” (of sight and hearing), “light, bright, shining; sparse” (12c., Modern French clair), from Latin clarus “clear, loud,” of sounds; figuratively “manifest, plain, evident,” in transferred use, of sights, “bright, distinct;” also “illustrious, famous, glorious” (source of Italian chiaro, Spanish claro), from PIE kle-ro-, from root kele- “to shout”.
cutting (n): From cut (v.). The action of cutting something.
2. In practice, may refer to exploitation that leaves much unsaleable material standing, e.g. a commercial clear cutting (North America) = liquidation cutting.
3. It is perhaps both a mistake and a tragedy that foresters have chosen to call clearcutting exactly that. Although an accurate name for the practice, it was also the name of another practice from the turn of the century. The old form of clearcutting from the 1800s and very early 1900s was an economic practice -cutting all that was usable to a sawmill. Since most timber at that time was large, old-growth timber, nearly all timber was usable- therefore all timber was cut. This total exploitation on the scale of many thousands of acres, in addition to the use of creeks as skid trails, roads, and flumes, left the region’s forest resources in an apparent state of ruin. The profession of forestry sprouted in reaction to the practice, and foresters sought to ease the impact of logging by creating “selection management.” This new management harvested fewer stems at relatively frequent intervals, while leaving some forest cover on each harvest area.
4. Clearcutting can be implemented in blocks, strips, or patches.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=clear&searchmode=none (last access: 17 February 2015); OD – http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/cutting (last access: 17 February 2015). 2. GDT. 3. http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/forestry/clrcut.htm (last access: 17 February 2015). 4. TERMIUMPLUS.

OV: clear cutting (US)

S: GDT

SYN: clear felling, clean cutting, complete cutting, complete exploitation, complete felling, clean felling.

S: TERMIUMPLUS. 2. GDT.

CR: biomass, biomass energy, bud pruning, pruning, sapling, stump, trimming.