The Deer Come at Dusk
In much of Ireland, the reason a woodland has no young trees in it is standing quietly at the edge of the field.
What browsing looks like
Deer take the growing tip and the softest leaves. A browsed sapling does not die at once; it stays the same height for years, bushy and stunted, and is quietly overtaken.
The clearest sign is a browse line: everything below chest height stripped bare, the wood suddenly see-through at ground level. It looks tidy. It is the opposite.
A wood with no seedlings under it is a wood with no next chapter.
Why numbers rose
Deer in Ireland have no natural predators left and a great deal of new forest to live in. Populations have grown steadily, and the pressure lands hardest on native broadleaf regeneration, which is exactly the thing everyone is trying to encourage.
What can be done
Fencing works and is expensive. Tree shelters work at small scale. Managed culling is the honest, uncomfortable part of the answer, and is best done at a landscape scale rather than one farm at a time.
None of it is about disliking deer. It is about a wood being able to replace itself.
The measure of a healthy wood is what is growing at knee height.
