I think that we need to clarify what we mean by clear-cutting. The semantics are
important.

It is one thing to cut all the trees on a plot of land in order to make it suitable
for
agriculture.   This is not clear-cutting. It is, instead, land clearing.

Clear-cutting as a logging word refers to the practice of cutting all standing
timber on a particular plot of land for logging purposes; that is, to sell the
timber. The practice of clear-cutting is usually thought of by traditionalists such
as myself as being conducive to erosion, bad timber management, greedy, and
basically ugly and evil in all its manifestations. Land-clearing for agricultural
purposes, however, has no such connotation.  Paradoxically, traditionalists such as
myself bewail the return of arable lands to forest, and console ourselves only with
the knowledge that we are trading beauty for beauty.  That cannot be said for the
practice of clear-cutting.

Tom Perrin