Clearcutting or clearfelling is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in a forest sector are cut down.

There is no agreement upon the minimum area that constitutes a clearcut, but typically, areas smaller than five acres may be labeled patch clearcuts. Clearcutting for conversion to other uses is termed "land conversion" by foresters.

Clearcutting can include:

• silvicultural clearcut, which removes every stem so the forest will be regenerated with no overstory.
• commercial clearcut (or high grading), which removes only commercially valuable trees, leaving the other trees standing.

Before the advent of forestry, clearcutting was practiced as the major method of logging, with no planned regeneration for the areas cut, which were converted to other uses or left to regenerate naturally. In areas of the world where long term planning is not undertaken, this continues to be the case. In the past and present, this kind of clearcutting without any planning is practiced in forests where virtually every tree is valuable, as in an old growth forest.

In forestry, clearcutting is practiced to regenerate species that require large disturbed high light intensity environments. In a silvicultural planned clearcut virtually all trees are removed, even trees that are not commercially valuable, in order to achieve the outcome environment desired by commercial foresters, including light and soil factors. Clearcuts that are improperly planned have some of the same negative effects of clearcuts with no plan for regeneration. Clearcutting on steep slopes can result in very high erosion rates, for instance.