PENDLETON — When bulldozers began last month to knock down trees at Clemson University’s Simpson Agricultural Research Station in Pendleton, and trucks were seen hauling timber away, nearby residents and conservation groups expressed shock and outrage.

Word quickly spread that university officials had contracted with a timber company to raze a 118-acre tract of forested land at Simpson for $160,000. Critics said the cash-strapped university had sold out a thriving habitat for wildlife and natural sanctuary for the public to enjoy.

Soon, a petition-drive was launched online calling on university officials to stop the timber cutting and the “selling out of forests.”

Betsy George, who lives near the Simpson Agricultural Research Station and has walked its grounds with her husband and children, was among the scores to sign the petition.

“These woods teemed with woodpeckers, turkeys, deer, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, etc., etc.,” George posted online. “Where do they go now? And what happened to this year’s babies?”

Tom Manning, chair of the Foothills Group, a Sierra Club affiliate in Clemson, asked members to call on Clemson University’s president to halt the “senseless and destructive plan.”

Others wondered what other university-owned forests would be next in line.

However, a Clemson University spokesperson said Thursday that the Simpson Agricultural Research Station is not part of the university’s 17,500- acre Experimental Forest.

Debbie Dalhouse, communications director for Clemson University Public Service Activities, said that unlike the Experimental Forest whose multipurpose greenspace is intended to be enjoyed by the public, the Simpson compound was never meant to be open to the public.

Dalhouse said part of the 2,300-acres at Simpson is used for beef cattle and part for crop production.

Furthermore, Dalhouse said that Knight Cox, the university’s forest manager, has won national awards for conservation. She said the 118-acre tract clearing at Simpson was well planned, and that in a few months there would be new trees there, including pine and hardwood. She added that wildlife from the area cleared had other places to move within Simpson’s 2,300 acres.

The contract to harvest timber at Simpson went to Log Creek Timber of Edgefield, S.C., Dalhouse said.