“cut down every one of the 200 year old oak trees out of the 20 acres of woods behind our house”
I wonder were there trees once where your house now stands whose cutting someone lamented.
This is true for me.
Lucky for us they did not cut them all, there was a large oak (still there) in the front yard and about a dozen in the back yard, they did cull three of those. Most of the old neighborhood they left some in the front and back yards.