What’s a clear-cut?
Song: A clear-cut is exactly what it sounds like. All the trees in an area are removed, and underbrush burned. The area is sprayed with defoliant mixed with diesel fuel, in order to stop regrowth. The land, now open to the elements and with no vegetation to hold down the soil, and absorb seasonal rains, loses rich topsoil and that washes down to choke waterways, in turn creating problems with native fish populations such as Coho salmon. Most times the clear-cut area is ultimately replanted with a single commercial species, such as Douglas fir, in easily harvested rows. This creates a tree plantation where there was once an ecologically diverse forest.
