coupe sombre

From woodcutting; the idea being that the forest is still dense and dark, because it was only lightly felled.

• IPA^(key): /kup sɔ̃bʁ/

coupe sombre f (plural coupes sombres)

1. (forestry) light felling, thinning of the trees
2. (sometimes proscribed, figuratively, chiefly in the plural) drastic cuts

   faire des coupes sombres dans quelque chose ― to make drastic cuts, to make swingeing cuts, to make substantial cutbacks

• This idiom is often misunderstood to mean "heavy felling" (for which coupe claire would be the right term), whence the figurative sense.

• coupe rase, coupe à blanc