Clear cuts replace the fires that regenerate the ground. It allows grass to grow bringing in elk, deer and mice etc strengthening those animals which then bring in the predators.
Forest rotation is a healthy thing for the forests and keeps new growth for the forest ecosystem. It needs to be managed not worshiped so it overgrows and chokes itself out waiting for a spark to start a massive fire.
Exactly. If the Indians had chain saws, they woulda used ‘em!
So they burned instead.
The idea of the Noble Savage, in tune with Mother Nature and the Great Spirit, shedding a single tear at trash, has always been great propaganda but is also a great lie.
Even today, Amazonian Indians, in order to farm, will girdle all the trees, killing them, and then plant their yams and cassava roots in the empty space. When the soil plays out in few short years, they move and repeat the process. Meanwhile, they also wipe out all the tapirs, monkeys and birds in that local area.
Modern, technological first world man actually takes better care of the environment than any other in the history of mankind.