For many forest users, the sight of a clearcut is often immediately disturbing. What once had been a stand of large mature trees is changed into a site with slash piles and little else. But clearcuts are a way of making up for natural processes that have been short-circuited by civilization, processes that provide dramatic benefits to plant and wildlife communities.

Clearcuts are used to help regenerate species that cannot compete in mature forests. A number of them -- aspen, jack pine and, in areas with poor soils, oaks -- are important species for both game and nongame wildlife species.

Before civilization's intrusion into forest management, forest regeneration was achieved largely through natural disturbances -- forest fires, wind storms, floods and beaver activity. Human activities, such as suppressing wild fires and trapping beaver, have changed the natural order of forests.

"Clearcutting is an ecology-based strategy," said Cara Boucher, assistant chief of the Department of Natural Resources Forest, Mineral and Fire Management Division. "It's how we manage for shade-intolerant species."

Two of the most notable species that are clearcut are aspen and jack pine. Both provide important wildlife habitat, though in different ways.

Aspen stands are prime examples of early successional forests. A relatively short-lived species, aspen is unable to compete without disturbances. Typically managed on a 40- to 50-year rotation, aspen is clearcut to allow regeneration from the root stock. Aspen needs full sunshine to thrive. In an aspen cut, the root system sends out anywhere from 5,000 to 70,000 suckers per acre that grow into new trees.

An aspen clearcut begins to pay off almost immediately for more than 70 species of wildlife that use the early successional forest.

"The first year after a clearcut there's a lot of course woody debris on the ground, so it's very helpful for creatures like salamanders and snakes," said DNR wildlife biologist Al Stewart. "The cuts help to release the raspberries and the fruit-bearing shrubs, such as gray-stemmed dogwoods, so you'll get some bird species, such as rufus-sided towhees using those.

"As growth progresses, there are other species that come in and use that habitat. In that first 10 years, the golden-winged warbler uses that young forest as it's coming up. Over the last 40 years, golden-winged warbler populations have declined by more than three percent a year. That loss is attributable to the loss of habitat due to forest maturation."

Game species directly benefit as well.

"Early successional forests are really key for grouse and woodcock," said Stewart, who is the DNR's upland game bird specialist. "Snowshoe hares utilize areas that have been harvested. And since there are mice and chipmunks in that habitat, bobcats are in there. Bear use the fruits and grasses. Waterfowl will nest in those grassy areas the first few years. And, of course, deer use clearcuts."

In the case of jack pine management, clearcuts are used to mimic the natural way of regenerating jack pine to produce habitat for Kirtland's warblers, a species of songbird that almost disappeared, but is making a strong comeback because of forest management.

"Kirtland's warblers use jack pine for nesting sites," Boucher said. "Kirtland's warblers want large blocks of even-aged forest. They want trees with branches that reach the ground and as jack pines get older, they are no longer good nesting habitat."

Unlike aspen, however, jack pines are replanted as seedlings so it sometimes takes four or five years before the new trees grow tall enough to be apparent.

More recently, forest managers have found that clearcutting oak stands helps regenerate oak forests in areas of poor soil. The tree canopies in oak forests often shade out the ground, making it impossible for newly sprouted oaks to grow. By removing the older trees, the saplings stand a chance of recruiting into the forest.

"If we want mast (acorn) crops, we have to perpetuate oak stands," Boucher said. "Currently two-thirds of our oak stands are 70-years-old or older. As oaks age they have reduced vigor, they can't compete with other species and they produce less mast."

If oaks aren't cut, others species -- such as maple and beech -- take over the forest.

Some other trees, such as red pine, often are completely removed in a process that foresters refer to as "final harvest." Often grown in even-aged plantations, red pines typically are thinned several times over the course of their lives and then are harvested at their peak economic value, when the stand begins to go into decline.

Although clearcuts are the best way to manage for shade-intolerant species, the DNR has not gone clearcut crazy. Generally, DNR foresters prefer clearcuts that are around 100 acres or less. (There are exceptions, of course, for salvage operations after a fire; if there is a disease issue, such as emerald ash borer, or if a stand measures slightly more than 100 acres.) And lots of places are off-limits to clearcutting: within 100 feet of a stream, in natural areas, wilderness areas or parks (again, with some exceptions). Often, when people encounter clearcuts that are larger than 100 acres, they are not seeing DNR cuts, but private-land harvests, sometimes immediately next to a state forest cut.

Clearcuts provide some aesthetic benefits, too.

"We manage forests for multiple uses," Boucher said. "People like different vistas. Cuts help provide variety. If we don't regenerate forest they will all grow up looking the same. Sometimes you have to do something now to ensure long-term health. Sometimes it doesn't look great in the short run, but in the long term, the forest is healthier because of it."

Clearcuts provide multiple benefits to both forests and wildlife. Their appearance may be jarring at first -- especially to forest users who are accustomed to seeing stands of mature trees. But the denuded landscape is short-lived.

"In five to 10 years, clearcuts often are too thick to walk through," Boucher. "Or even to see through."