The point here is we have a living testament to witness of what to do and what not to do during an outbreak of beetles. Otherwise we will repeat the same mistakes over and over.   Leaving the dead trees without multiple entries of large scale heavy equipment  impacting the soil and damaging the diverse understory lets the sun hit the small trees earlier as the depth of snow from clearcutting can not accumulate.  The winter desert of white snow created by large swath  clearcutting  removes the cover and understory food  for wildlife in the winter.  My property also attests to the natural forest growing back without the addition of grasses overwhelming the natural habitat.  The standing dead allows the wildlife to acclimate to the change without the guillotine effect of large scale man altering prescriptions. Your small alterations creates a mozaic affect. Large scale alterations create a mass exodus of birds and wildlife creating grass that small trees take a long time to compete with.