Protests and conflicts against clearcutting have increased tenfold in the last ten years in France. NGOs and citizen movements are so active that they are succeeding in suspending and even stopping many harvesting operations in the most productive forest regions. How did this social movement emerge and how are forest owners' associations reacting to this strong social mobilization against clearcutting? Using a socio-constructivist theoretical framework to analyze the rise and fall of social problems, we will show how ENGOS and local citizens' movements are joining forces today to put clearcutting regulations on the political agenda through highly effective grassroots and internet communication campaigns. Conflicts are also stimulated by the "greening" and "climatisation" of social debates, which means that every logging action should be evaluated according to its ecological and climatic impacts. Clearcuts illustrate these conflicting views by questioning the impact of forest management operations on the landscape, ecosystem services and the ambivalent role of forestry in the economic development of remote rural areas. More generally, these protests are putting into question the forest social order that usually prevail in the forest sector. Despite some moments of violence, we show that these conflicts can be a positive moment according to Georg Simmel’ approach of conflicts to discuss the social contract between citizens, forest owners' organizations and forest policy makers. Finally, we will show how these conflicts lead some forest owners to reconsider certain forestry techniques such as clearcutting and policy makers to adapt forestry regulations concerning clearcutting at the margin.