SAVOY, Mass - It's a massive space of open land in Savoy Massachusetts. Once filled with giant pines, part of the State Forest has been wiped clear of any tree life because of logging by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. That has environmentalists outraged.

"These lands only make up 10 percent of the state of Massachusetts. And to really exploit this commercially as they're doing now is the opposite of what we need to do," said Massachusetts Forest Watch founder Chris Matera.

Matera says taxpayers are essentially paying the DCR to destroy public land so the state can turn a profit from selling the timber.

"It's most offensive for an organization called the Department of Conservation and Recreation to be doing this to our public land," said Matera.

Clear cutting, he says, is the wrong way to log a forest, unless disease is an issue - something the DCR contends is.

In a statement the department says:

Clear cuts are recommended only where disease and damage limit other options ... there was (and still is) "root rot" present in most of the plantations at Savoy Mountain State Forest.

David Gafney disagrees. He's an attorney who spent years studying forest ecology at several National Parks across the country, including Yellowstone. He says the area in Savoy was disease free.

"It's not a reason or excuse to butcher a place. And that's exactly what they've been doing here. They've been butchering this state forest," said Gafney.

The DCR says it only cuts trees for certain reasons, including wildlife management and improving the quality of the forest. But Gafney says money is the only motivation.

"There's a special interest involved: the wood products industry that are going to profit from this. The taxpayer, I don't think, is making any money off of all this."

Matera says wide growth rings along the outer edges of tree trunks indicate, most if not all, the trees in Savoy State Forest were alive and well before the logging.

"It's nonsense. You don't clear cut a forest for forest health," said Matera.

He also says an areal shot shows he possesses shows how healthy the forest was prior to the clear cut. For him, it's a powerful reminder of what some now call the chainsaw massacre of Savoy State Forest.