this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
2 points (100.0% liked)

UK Nature and Environment

689 readers
29 users here now

General Instance Rules:

Community Specific Rules:

Note: Our temporary logo is from The Wildlife Trusts. We are not officially associated with them.

Our spring banner is a shot of Walberswick marshes, Suffolk by GreyShuck.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

To the untrained eye, Monks Wood looks healthy and lush in the summer sun. Hundreds of butterflies dance on the edge of footpaths in the ancient Cambridgeshire woodland, which is rich with ash, maple and oak trees. Birds flit through the hedgerows as they feed. A fox ambles through a forest clearing, before disappearing into long grass.

But for a number of years, it has been clear to Bruno Ladvocat and Rachel Mailes that something is missing. In 2022, Ladvocat, Mailes and their research team from Birmingham University were out sampling when they noticed that the small trees that typically cover the woodland floor were increasingly hard to find.

Today, in the dappled sunshine surrounding the largest trees, spaces that would normally be home to a mass of saplings scrambling for light are bare.

top 2 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Deer herds reaching such vast numbers, and having no predators to drive continual migration means that they absolutely decimate saplings and young trees, they area huge problem in woodland management

They're not Time Lords