Clear-cutting is the practice of cutting all the trees on a tract of land at the same time. A tract that has been clear-cut will have no trees left standing. With its windrows of slash (the unmarketable portions of the tree, such as tops and branches) and debris, a clear-cut tract of land may appear to the untrained eye as though a catastrophic event has devastated the landscape. As far as critics of clear-cutting are concerned, that is indeed what has happened.

Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science, 2023. 2p.