Where's my forest gone? To the Grouse...that's where....

[bikeworkshop]

How do you get mature trees in land used for sheep farming? Either the sheep have to be kept separate from the saplings, or the trees were already mature when the sheep moved in, I guess? Genuine question, I'm curious to know.

Here's one end of the village:

The trees tend to be on the boggy or steep ground, or in the hedgerows, with the sheep grazing in walled or hedged enclosures in between.

The mature hardwood trees formed part of the working landscape, providing timber for building and fuel for heating.

This practice mostly survives, as the land is too uneven and the soil too poor for large scale commercial interest.

I live here because I can keep sheep
and produce my own fuel.

And the cycling's great.

 

[Scott-S]

I wish I knew the answer, while not an eco warrior but I do consider myself as who tries to do better and be more responsive rather than a knee jerk virtue signalling zealot (come on we all know at least one) who will charge in.
Having been enjoying the outdoors since I took up shooting again I think theres more to be done to get the impressionable kids outside to see the real deal version of what they are sometime blindly preaching about because they are our future but they need more experience of what they are trying to save.

Scotland is a beautiful country (please forgive my national pride) but it also needs a lot of that barren landscape for tourists to see the landscape otherwise it's boring looking at tall trees for mile after mile (ecological argument aside)

Like the OP Im a very strict believer in the old leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but memories ideal since I first read it as a younger man.

 

[bikeworkshop]

A problem here is the deer lack predation and so they are overgrazing the woodland understorey, including young trees.

Similar to many parts of the Highlands - except they've been overgrazing for so long most of the forest died off.

It's almost impossible to legally cull them.

Cars get a few, but it's not economical or humane!

 

[Scott-S]

On a slightly lighter note, few years ago I showed a friend from the community a picture of the really healthy looking herd of roe deer grazing on the other side of my back fence and once I had convinced him that it was highly illegal for me to use my shotgun on them and no my neighbours really would mind me terrifying their autistic kids he countered that he'd be over the fence and have a least few heads off with a garden spade before they scattered leaving him in peace to process them...

While they need controlled I was not giving Mad Max my address
Yes they definitely need strategic controlling but sometimes it's nice to just sit and enjoy nature doing its thing around you in peace and oblivious to humanity being a few feet away enjoying a red wine in the sun

 

[sjcprojects]

I think the problems and the solutions to them are fairly clear, really, if you look at the science. But there’s absolutely no political will to do anything about it (as with so many issues).

But I will leave it at that seeing as this is a bike forum

 

[sjcprojects]

Although…this is an interesting point…

but it also needs a lot of that barren landscape for tourists to see the landscape otherwise it's boring looking at tall trees for mile after mile (ecological argument aside)

I wonder if it’s true that tourists (and people in general) wouldn’t want to see wooded hillsides (the higher areas will never be heavily wooded as only smaller trees like rowan or birch grow that high up). I guess it’s true that people are so used to what the countryside looks like, they might be resistant change.

It’s all academic anyway, it just makes me wonder…

 

[basketcase]

Cars get a few,

I lived in southern New England for many years - Small towns, semi-abandoned farmland, and extensive wooded areas.
EVERYONE I knew had hit deer with their car, at least once - I did, a few times!
This was usually at night, or early AM, and usually caused heavy damage to both deer and vehicle.
There are large Whitetail Deer populations inside all the town limits, where of course, you couldn't hunt them, and the deer know this.
The situation was, and I guess still is, out of control.

Their only predators are Eastern Coyotes, a good deal larger than their western counterparts, and quite capable of bringing down a deer.
But, of course, there's always a hue and cry to eliminate them, because they also like to eat people's cats, etc, that are let out at night.
I was caretaker for a large estate in northern New York, for a while, that had a huge deer population.
The surrounding lumber company land (many thousands of acres) was leased by a "hunt club", that actually paid a guy to trap and shoot coyotes.
The club wanted to be sure they had a good supply of inbred, and very stupid deer ...........