Clearcutting is a harvesting practice that removes most of the standing trees in a selected area at the same time. Under sustainable forest management, which TIR follows, only smaller areas within forests called stands are harvested. Trees harvested today are typically trees that were specifically planted decades ago to be harvested. In modern forestry, an entire forest is never clearcut.
Clearcuts are meticulously planned as part of sustainable forest management plans. Such planning takes into account the surrounding area around a planned harvest site.
While it might look more disruptive in the short term, clearcutting is the safest and fastest way to help our forests grow back quickly. It’s not a shortcut but instead an essential step in making sure forests keep thriving on a continuous cycle of growth, harvest, and regrowth.
Clearcutting mimics naturally occurring events like fires and windstorms, creating openings in the forest and space for new trees to take root, mature, and thrive. Open clearings in forests are good for wildlife species that need different stages of forest growth. These areas receive more sunlight and create ideal growing conditions for sun-loving shrubs and grasses that serve as habitat and food sources for a wide variety of wildlife. Standing dead trees, logs, and scattered live trees are also left after harvest for additional habitat, and buffers of trees along streams and other bodies of water are protected.
Clearcut areas are quickly regenerated either through planting or planned natural regeneration.