Like many farms in our area, we also have some large wooded plots. If I were a Sierra Club, Global Warming, Eco-kook, fanatic what makes the most sense? Do I cut down those trees & sell them for lumber, or let Nature take it's course, watch them fall over year after year, or burn down from a lightning strike? Typically, clear cutting is the way it's done here. In as little as 3-4 years, the landscape is completely covered in "green" and in 10 years there's 20' Pines crowding out the underbrush again.
My neighbor said, "if you don't harvest them, they'll die off and you get nothing. Harvest them, get paid, and plant another crop."
It just makes sense to be part of the natural process of a Tree's life, than watch the landscape burn, year after year, in California.