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One of my favourite woods in Midlothian with a few young coos amongst the birches. Other parts of this site are a diverse mosaic of grassland, gorse, wet heath, rush pasture, scrubby willow, & birch-pine woodland. #cowsintrees
The cattle have free range across the site, I think sheep are occasionally in too. Lots of diversity & the wood, in most parts, doesn't look that old. Stocking density appears to be pretty good from what I've seen.
There's also a few fenced off areas where there's plenty regen occurring, and other areas where I'd guess were once fenced off that the cattle are now trudging through to browse. All looks pretty good to me. Not to say I think all native woodland should be managed this way.
Managing them in this way alters the habitat. The ground flora moves away from a woodland ground flora with woodland herbs & dwarf shrubs, & towards a grassier, rushier flora. I've no problem with that but we do still need extensive areas of functional pure woodland habitat.
Plenty space for both, of course.
