Unpleasant surprise while climbing

I went out climbing again this morning, this time a scraggly old white oak I've had my eye on. As I was halfway up the trunk, a couple of fellows walked by, and we struck up a conversation. Long story short, but not sweet, they were there to estimate the timber value for a proposed clear cut of about 40 acres of hardwoods. After sixteen years of walking through these woods, I've grown really attached, and the day they're gone would be a sad day for me indeed.

sorry about that, pretty devastating to lose a beautiful woods! Do you know who owns the land?

Is the clear cut for development? Wouldn't makes sense from a foresty/harvesting point of view to clear cut since it looks like mixed age woods, there wouldd be lots of small stuff they couldn't use. Would be interesting to know what the purpose/use of the clear cut material is.
-AJ

What's going on now with forests throughout the southeast, and other regions, is the timber is being sold to pellet mills. The forester said these mills will pay a higher price, especially for hardwoods. The pellets are being exported to Europe to be used as a "greener" alternative to fossil fuels. There is an organization called The Dogwood Alliance which is trying to raise awareness about this. I guess, in Europe, it's a NIMBY kind of thing, or perhaps they see that the USA is willing to monetize every last resource that it has. NC State University has been in secret negotiations for some time to sell off its Hoffman Forest, a 79,000 acre tract in the eastern part of the state. Like Joni Mitchell said in "Big Yellow Taxi", you don't know what you got till it's gone.