Solarguy
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Just sent/via paypal/ money to add to your project. I'm so impressed with your dedication.
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Sequestering carbon by land restoration and reforestation in Iceland
- Thread starter KarenRei
- Start date
Took my time to think
When the sheep issue was first mentioned, i was thinking along the lines of "why worry, I cannot remember ever seeing a sheep in a forest, it's Bambi's territory (although probably not on Iceland)".
Think while the engineering challenge of getting some sort of traditional fence up is simple, in practical terms 8km of fence is a lot. Both in effort and resources. And evenings aren't getting longer in this season in the northern hemisphere. Guess you already know all of that.
After that I started thinking maybe borrow a friendly dog to join you on the evening plantings a few times a week. I decided to go silent on that one. Partly because if the dog isn't bonded to you, there is no knowing if it will come back after planting time. But also because google told me dog's poo can contain parasites that may kill sheep. And i do think that, although unintentionally, bringing possibly serious harm to other life shouldn't be a consequence. I do not know what to think of dog's in wildlife territory. Cann't make up my mind on the issue, also didn't dive really deep into it. But well, seems safe to assume sheeps don't really like to feed in places where dogs roam freely. Maybe partly supported by the following link:
Which chemical constituents from dog feces are involved in its food repellent effect in sheep?
(I only read the linked page, not the paper).
As a side note, i am happy that i've been able to share my life with a dog for thirteen years, but after he passed away i started treading the vegetarian path. And in hindsight, a lot of (industrialized) meat has been fed into my four legged friend. For that reason only, i think i might not raise another dog again.
Guess i don't know what's wise, but the smart and practical way seems what you are already intending to do. Offer the trees that are likely to be eaten by sheep some form of protection and trust nature to take care of the rest. Every year that your plantings and seedings grow the land should become less and less attractive for sheep. (unless of course the grass really likes the nitrogen and gives the sheep another reason to feast
). There doesn't seem to be a guaranteed outcome when dealing with natural processes Also it's my personal opinion that the smaller the tree is when planted (or seeded) or comes in naturally, the more beautiful the end result when it's fully grown. But maybe that's just due to my experience with something like 50m2 of garden in moderate climate without sheep
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New day, new trees. Mixing together some varied trays to carry off. I'm finding a surprisingly number of multi-stemmed sitka spruce. My first instinct was to set them aside to separate them, but then I came to a couple where it could be seen that they clearly came from the same trunk. So... I guess just plant them as-is.
Some neighbors are out on the hillside above me sowing seed (probably clover) onto a degraded patch of land (they're hard to see in the pic; they're in the brown section containing the white "blob", which is a stack of seed bags). I'll be doing the same soon enough.
Grabbing some downy birch and some willow "fjölbraut":
One willow down, ~149 more trees to go today
Ugh, the soil is getting too shallow for the tool already?
And then.... comes the rains. I walked back to the car, but they were dying down when I got there. I waited until they stopped, then walked back to my trees.... and then the rains started again I just put my hood up and dealt with it; the shower was short and not that intense. Actually, my main problem today was that I was way too hot
Found a new sheep casualty from my late-spring planting round. Note that they don't eat more than a bite or so of the pines, but the fact that they rip up as they eat leaves trees uprooted (had I done inspections more often I could have replanted it in time ). One advantage to using the new planting tool is that it makes very tight holes that I think would be much harder to uproot from. But that does't help this tree. D*mn sheep
Two trays done - stacking them up in the car:
Because of the heat (yeah, yeah, don't laugh ), I stopped to get some water. Note the sheep-clipped rhododendron near the faucet. When I planted it, I thought, "Hey a rhododendron. They're poisonous! Sheep won't eat them!". Ha.
Did you know... that when sheep bleat, what they're actually saying is "Hail Satan"?
Okay, maybe I've gotten a bit overboard with my dislike of them. But it's not without due cause
Onward with a new batch of trees. Downy birch, sitka spruce, lodgepole pine, and willow "fjölbraut" (planted below)
Some neighbors are out on the hillside above me sowing seed (probably clover) onto a degraded patch of land (they're hard to see in the pic; they're in the brown section containing the white "blob", which is a stack of seed bags). I'll be doing the same soon enough.
Grabbing some downy birch and some willow "fjölbraut":
One willow down, ~149 more trees to go today
Ugh, the soil is getting too shallow for the tool already?
And then.... comes the rains.
I walked back to the car, but they were dying down when I got there. I waited until they stopped, then walked back to my trees.... and then the rains started again I just put my hood up and dealt with it; the shower was short and not that intense. Actually, my main problem today was that I was way too hot Found a new sheep casualty from my late-spring planting round. Note that they don't eat more than a bite or so of the pines, but the fact that they rip up as they eat leaves trees uprooted (had I done inspections more often I could have replanted it in time
). One advantage to using the new planting tool is that it makes very tight holes that I think would be much harder to uproot from. But that does't help this tree. D*mn sheep Two trays done - stacking them up in the car:
Because of the heat (yeah, yeah, don't laugh
), I stopped to get some water. Note the sheep-clipped rhododendron near the faucet. When I planted it, I thought, "Hey a rhododendron. They're poisonous! Sheep won't eat them!". Ha. Did you know... that when sheep bleat, what they're actually saying is "Hail Satan"?
Okay, maybe I've gotten a bit overboard with my dislike of them. But it's not without due cause
Onward with a new batch of trees. Downy birch, sitka spruce, lodgepole pine, and willow "fjölbraut" (planted below)
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In the middle of planting, who do I see walking down the street nearby? Why, it's an Icelandic sheepdog without a collar! My, you seem friendly!
Wow, you're liking this attention too much - it's almost like you wish you were on this side of the fence!
Too bad, because the whole purpose of a fence is to keep things out, and....
Um....
Okay... you squeezed through... I... guess that's okay, you are smaller than a sheep... yeah, okay...
Just behave yourself around the...
.... AROUND THE SEEDLINGS. :Þ
She followed me everywhere I went, but whenever I crouched / sat down to plant a tree / add fertilizer / cover it up, she was on top of me, demanding my 100% attention. Never should have pet her If I stopped petting her for a moment, she would reposition - frequently on top of some seedlings or the hole I was trying to work with. REALLY slowed me down
Wow, you're liking this attention too much - it's almost like you wish you were on this side of the fence!
Too bad, because the whole purpose of a fence is to keep things out, and....
Um....
Okay... you squeezed through... I... guess that's okay, you are smaller than a sheep... yeah, okay...
Just behave yourself around the...
.... AROUND THE SEEDLINGS. :Þ
She followed me everywhere I went, but whenever I crouched / sat down to plant a tree / add fertilizer / cover it up, she was on top of me, demanding my 100% attention. Never should have pet her
If I stopped petting her for a moment, she would reposition - frequently on top of some seedlings or the hole I was trying to work with. REALLY slowed me down
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Okay, dog, let's make a deal. I'll pet you whenever I sit down to plant things, with one hand, so that I can keep working with the other.
All you have to do is promise not to do anything annoying, like...
... like SIT RIGHT ON TOP OF THE SEEDLING TRAY WITH ALL THE SEEDLINGS!
Ugh... you're lucky that I like dogs
Already distracted enough, something which the neighbor had said the other day came into focus. When discussing improving the fence, he made a remark about "patching up the hole near the culvert". At the time I thought, "Yeah, yeah, I patched that up several years ago." Well, nope, not anymore.
Don't know whether nature, a human, or a really pushy sheep made this hole, but it's clearly A Problem(TM). I have no supplies on me, but... this should do as a temporary measure:
What, you want to get in the way off some more tree plantings?
Come on, go do something useful. Like....
No, not like eating grass. Something like....
... like show me a place where the fence could use a new bottom wire? Yeah, that'll do
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A car came driving slowly down the road that "we" were working next to.
The driver saw the dog, stopped, and called her - she ran to him. He gave her a lighthearted scolding for straying so far from home. I said hi, we exchanged pleasantries (including what the dog's name is, which I've already forgotten ), and he drove off with her.
I was both happy and sad to see her go. But now planting can get back up to pace! Well, apart from another (very brief) rain shower en route.
Digging a hole for a sitka spruce near a western marsh, I stumble into a cluster of insect eggs. Probably not a good spot to plant the tree
Succulent growing in some of the western sands:
And after a whirlwind planting, the last tree of the day!
A nice convenient snack was nearby. We call them blueberries (bláber), but technically, they're bilberries (both common and bog bilberries grow in Iceland). They're not as sweet, but more intense, than store blueberries.
I was working near the western border of my land, which is defined by this waterfall across the river. Remember that this is a period of low water flows; it can be much more powerful than this.
Looking back up the canyon through my land:
Loading the empty trays - they're really stacking up
Really, just one more good day's planting and I might be able to finish the current trees. Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow, so it'll be back to evenings... don't know if I can finish the remaining trees i one evening. But I'll try!
Some spectators on the way home:
The driver saw the dog, stopped, and called her - she ran to him. He gave her a lighthearted scolding for straying so far from home. I said hi, we exchanged pleasantries (including what the dog's name is, which I've already forgotten
), and he drove off with her.I was both happy and sad to see her go. But now planting can get back up to pace! Well, apart from another (very brief) rain shower en route.
Digging a hole for a sitka spruce near a western marsh, I stumble into a cluster of insect eggs. Probably not a good spot to plant the tree
Succulent growing in some of the western sands:
And after a whirlwind planting, the last tree of the day!
A nice convenient snack was nearby.
We call them blueberries (bláber), but technically, they're bilberries (both common and bog bilberries grow in Iceland). They're not as sweet, but more intense, than store blueberries.I was working near the western border of my land, which is defined by this waterfall across the river. Remember that this is a period of low water flows; it can be much more powerful than this.
Looking back up the canyon through my land:
Loading the empty trays - they're really stacking up
Really, just one more good day's planting and I might be able to finish the current trees. Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow, so it'll be back to evenings... don't know if I can finish the remaining trees i one evening. But I'll try!
Some spectators on the way home:
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Icelandic horses are pony-sized, and unusual for having an extra gait (the tölt), which leads to more comfortable riding at speed. Horse riding is very popular here, and horses are a big export, although you never know (horse is also eaten here).
Another characteristic of Icelandic horses is that they all have hair like Tina Turner.
Import of horses and anything that has come into contact with horses - and even reimportation of exported horses - is strictly prohibited. Iceland is extremely protective of its horse stock.
Okay, back into the car. Bye, horses!
Another characteristic of Icelandic horses is that they all have hair like Tina Turner.
Import of horses and anything that has come into contact with horses - and even reimportation of exported horses - is strictly prohibited. Iceland is extremely protective of its horse stock.
Okay, back into the car. Bye, horses!
Off Shore
Off Topic Member
Re: the split-stemmed spruce in photo 1, you're looking at more windfalls in the future.New day, new trees. Mixing together some varied trays to carry off. I'm finding a surprisingly number of multi-stemmed sitka spruce. My first instinct was to set them aside to separate them, but then I came to a couple where it could be seen that they clearly came from the same trunk. So... I guess just plant them as-is.
View attachment 432444
Some neighbors are out on the hillside above me sowing seed (probably clover) onto a degraded patch of land (they're hard to see in the pic; they're in the brown section containing the white "blob", which is a stack of seed bags). I'll be doing the same soon enough.
View attachment 432445
Grabbing some downy birch and some willow "fjölbraut":
View attachment 432446
One willow down, ~149 more trees to go today
View attachment 432447
Ugh, the soil is getting too shallow for the tool already?
View attachment 432450
And then.... comes the rains.
View attachment 432448
Found a new sheep casualty from my late-spring planting round. Note that they don't eat more than a bite or so of the pines, but the fact that they rip up as they eat leaves trees uprooted (had I done inspections more often I could have replanted it in time
View attachment 432452
Two trays done - stacking them up in the car:
View attachment 432454
Because of the heat (yeah, yeah, don't laugh
View attachment 432457
Did you know... that when sheep bleat, what they're actually saying is "Hail Satan"?
Okay, maybe I've gotten a bit overboard with my dislike of them. But it's not without due cause
Onward with a new batch of trees. Downy birch, sitka spruce, lodgepole pine, and willow "fjölbraut" (planted below)
View attachment 432458
Windfall? Trees being blown over?
I can always cut trunks off at any later date if that's a threat. Although before any tree gets large, it should be part of a forest, rather than standing on its own, and thus collectively resisting the wind.
Do you think I should pre-cut excess trunks?
Off Shore
Off Topic Member
have you by perchance considered a few Sequoiadendron giganteum?
'GIANT SEQUOIA'. Magnificent forest giant to over 100 meters tall, with a bole 3 - 10 meters in diameter, and bark ~1/2 meter thick.
Greyish green scale-like foliage and oval 2 - 3" cones. Rare, in only a few scattered groves in the Sierra Nevada.
Stands down to minus (-23°C) (-10F). Zone 6. Grows 2 - 3 feet a year when young, and lives 1500 years.
In The Giant Redwood Forests Of Iceland - The Reykjavik Grapevine
"In The Giant Redwood Forests Of Iceland
Can the Icelandic Forest Service restore the nation's long-lost tree cover?"
'GIANT SEQUOIA'. Magnificent forest giant to over 100 meters tall, with a bole 3 - 10 meters in diameter, and bark ~1/2 meter thick.
Greyish green scale-like foliage and oval 2 - 3" cones. Rare, in only a few scattered groves in the Sierra Nevada.
Stands down to minus (-23°C) (-10F). Zone 6. Grows 2 - 3 feet a year when young, and lives 1500 years.
In The Giant Redwood Forests Of Iceland - The Reykjavik Grapevine
"In The Giant Redwood Forests Of Iceland
Can the Icelandic Forest Service restore the nation's long-lost tree cover?"
Would *LOVE* to. But it'd have to be well hardier than the average sequoia. I understand that there's some cultivars grown in some places in the upper midwest successfully which might have a shot. Either way, they'd need tons of shelter from established trees. At least they're more realistic than coast redwood
The subfamily Cupressoideae has a wide range of giant trees beyond sequoia and coast redwood, and some would be more suitable to our climate. For example, western redcedars can get truly massive.
Even they're a bit sensitive in our climate and could really use shelter (I have one at present; it's had a tough first year). But with some shelter they should be fine. As for redwoods specifically, the dawn redwood is the hardiest (but like the redcedar, could really use shelter in our climate). Another marginal possibility would be Alerce / Fitzroya. Maybe Sugi too (loved those when I was in Japan). All these trees love the general details about our climate (the sort of soils, the rainfall levels, etc), but the lack of shelter is a problem.
Basically, I need to get something going, before I switch to "wouldn't that be great!" trees. I learned that the hard way in my first couple years; these winter winds are brutal, and the number of species that can take them fully exposed is limited. Shelter comes first, then further diversification
Other super-giant trees are the eight giant eucalyptus species (largest being E. regnans), which before modern logging might have even beaten the coast redwoods for height. But the really big ones are all less hardy than sequoias and really have no shot here. For the "very not hardy" giant category, Klinki (a type of Araucaria) and Kauri deserve mention.
Moderately cold tolerant outside of Cupressoideae, coast douglas-fir is probably the biggest - not as wide as western redcedar, but taller. But they're still moderately sensitive. Sitka spruce - which I'm planting extensively - get up to the same width as the coast douglas-firs, but not quite as tall. I'd love sugar pines (with their super-long cones) - the largest of the pines - but even with shelter, I don't know that they could make it here. Maybe. Incense cedar, maybe too, but it'd be tough.
.... And that's IMHO the 20 most impressive (diameter, height) trees on Earth
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Oh, and there's the other issue with temperature. If the planet keeps warming, then these trees at maturity will be living in their optimal temperatures - like coastal British Columbia-ish climates (or in a worse-case scenario, Washington). On the other hand, if we stop and then revert the warming, none of these trees will ever reach supergiant heights. The potential of a tree is one part genetics, one part environment.
I'd definitely consider the permanent dwarfing** of my trees via too cool of a climate to be a price worth paying, though.
** Note that "dwarfing" is a relative term; there already are sitka spruce in Iceland nearly 30 meters tall, and still growing at quite a clip. But without the climate warming, they could probably not average the 50-70m typical max height, let alone the 96m record height / 5m record diameter. Time will tell, of course, but I won't be around to see it++.
++ - Barring huge success at Neuralink
I'd definitely consider the permanent dwarfing** of my trees via too cool of a climate to be a price worth paying, though.
** Note that "dwarfing" is a relative term; there already are sitka spruce in Iceland nearly 30 meters tall, and still growing at quite a clip. But without the climate warming, they could probably not average the 50-70m typical max height, let alone the 96m record height / 5m record diameter. Time will tell, of course, but I won't be around to see it++.
++ - Barring huge success at Neuralink
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Don TLR
Active Member
Nice Tesla Logo in the grass, loving all the updates and pictures, I sent some $$ your way to help out..
You know you're driving in Iceland when you pass an electrical contractor whose company name on their van is "Electro-salmon"
It's been cloudy all day, and it looks rainy in the direction of my land. "Looks rainy" transforms into "actually is rainy":
As I head down Hvalfjarðarvegur nearing my valley, however, it's clear:
In my valley, you can see the dividing line between clear weather and rain:
Great, I'm thinking, it's going to start raining soon.
I assemble the remaining trees. The goal for the evening is to finish them all. Since it's just an evening, this is a bit ambitious, but should be totally doable so long as there's no big delays.
First tree of the day, a sitka alder. It's showing signs of water stress, but should be fine (I should have watered them yesterday). These are really more like large shrubs than proper trees, but on the plus side, they're nitrogen fixers, and supposedly "poorly palatable" to sheep (for whatever that's worth...).
Down the valley to the east, the scattered showers have moved on to the south. Yeay, no rain while I'm planting
One of the trays I'm planting is tea-leaved willows, and willows love fertile soil. This old manure hillock should do!
It's been cloudy all day, and it looks rainy in the direction of my land. "Looks rainy" transforms into "actually is rainy":
As I head down Hvalfjarðarvegur nearing my valley, however, it's clear:
In my valley, you can see the dividing line between clear weather and rain:
Great, I'm thinking, it's going to start raining soon.
I assemble the remaining trees. The goal for the evening is to finish them all. Since it's just an evening, this is a bit ambitious, but should be totally doable so long as there's no big delays.
First tree of the day, a sitka alder. It's showing signs of water stress, but should be fine (I should have watered them yesterday). These are really more like large shrubs than proper trees, but on the plus side, they're nitrogen fixers, and supposedly "poorly palatable" to sheep (for whatever that's worth...).
Down the valley to the east, the scattered showers have moved on to the south. Yeay, no rain while I'm planting
One of the trays I'm planting is tea-leaved willows, and willows love fertile soil. This old manure hillock should do!
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I notice some of the trees from yesterday are showing signs of stress, either from root disturbance while planting, or insufficient water (aka like some of the sitka alder show today):
That said, the youngest leaves look fine, so the plant will probably be okay in a couple days.
While I'm planting, I keep hearing ravens in the distance (but not seeing them). As you know, ravens are the spies of Óðinn, and rowan sacred to his son Þór. I make a little pledge that the next time I come to a rowan, I'll give it some extra attention
Ah, here's a rowan. Have a little fertilizer - you rowans love fertilizer!
And like that, the ravens stopped cawing, and a moment later while planting the next tree, the sun came out bright in the sky, like a sign.
It was all so perfectly timed that I briefly browsed Youtube on my phone to see if anyone had made a parody of the old gospel hymn "Old Time Religion", making it about the Norse Gods instead (sadly, I couldn't find such a thing ).
(I'll take a moment to note here that I'm not actually a worshiper of the old gods - I just find it amusing, as well as a bit of connection with the history of the place. That said, worship of the old gods (Ásatrú) is a legitimate religion in Iceland, practiced by 1,3% of the population)
More lovely weather, more tea-leaved willow:
The iridescent bacterial film of an iron bog:
Nearing the western border, with the waterfall - almost there.
And, we're there! What a view this sitka spruce has. That really spruced up the joint!
The soil here on this boulder-shedding slope is really terrible. That said, since I added phosphorus last year, some small plants have started trying to take hold.
Steep and really slippery work:
That said, the youngest leaves look fine, so the plant will probably be okay in a couple days.
While I'm planting, I keep hearing ravens in the distance (but not seeing them). As you know, ravens are the spies of Óðinn, and rowan sacred to his son Þór. I make a little pledge that the next time I come to a rowan, I'll give it some extra attention
Ah, here's a rowan. Have a little fertilizer - you rowans love fertilizer!
And like that, the ravens stopped cawing, and a moment later while planting the next tree, the sun came out bright in the sky, like a sign.
It was all so perfectly timed that I briefly browsed Youtube on my phone to see if anyone had made a parody of the old gospel hymn "Old Time Religion", making it about the Norse Gods instead (sadly, I couldn't find such a thing
).(I'll take a moment to note here that I'm not actually a worshiper of the old gods - I just find it amusing, as well as a bit of connection with the history of the place. That said, worship of the old gods (Ásatrú) is a legitimate religion in Iceland, practiced by 1,3% of the population)
More lovely weather, more tea-leaved willow:
The iridescent bacterial film of an iron bog:
Nearing the western border, with the waterfall - almost there.
And, we're there! What a view this sitka spruce has. That really spruced up the joint!
The soil here on this boulder-shedding slope is really terrible. That said, since I added phosphorus last year, some small plants have started trying to take hold.
Steep and really slippery work:
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There is an upside to the constant rockfalls, in that they always expose new, neat rocks (there's some interesting mineral veins in the ground). For example, without even looking, I just happened to stumble upon this botyoidal chalcedony vug:
Even the "common" basalt rocks here frequently have (low quality) calcite crystals in their gas vesicles:
In some places on the cliffs, volunteer willows and birch cling on - taking advantage of the fact that they're inaccessible to sheep. Unfortunately for them, willows and birch love sun and fertile soil, while these locations are usually shady and in terrible soil (not even sure you can call it soil). So they're dwarfed. That said, whenever I pass then, I've taken to giving them a little fertilizer if I have any on-hand.
Trays done. Heading back to get the remaining trays.
Stark contrasts on the ravine. On the right side, the lack of nutrients and carbon in the soil makes it dry out easily, which makes it harder for plants to grow, which furthers the lack of carbon, which furthers the lack of nutrients in a vicious cycle (until recently, at least
It's getting better). On the left side, permanent water seeps keep the ground moist, encouraging plants to grow, laying down carbon, which helps retain nutrients and water, and creating a virtuous cycle of growth.
Leaving the empty trays by the car.
It is at this point - already late in the evening, when I'm just starting with the second half of the planting, that everything goes wrong.
I'm heading down along the north fence, east side of the driveway... and some sheep has ripped to shreds and uprooted a tree that I had just planted yesterday. I'm angry, but I replant it, and continue on. I go further... and there's another. I get angrier as I replant it. Then another. Then another. The entire bloody north fence on the east side, it just went down and destroyed 90% of the newly planted broadleafs there. 2 dozen? 3 dozen? I have never seen a massacre like this. In the past I've come and found many plants grazed, and it sucks because it keeps them from growing to a size that's safe from grazing, and they have to spend their energy regrowing leaf flushes instead of preparing for the winter (e.g. higher winter mortality), and I have to weed them because now they're smaller than the grass... but I've never before seen sheep just obliterate such a massive swath of trees. Yes, I replanted them all, but... my god, the damage.....
After I was about a third of the way down the fence, I just dropped the trays I was carrying. The anger turned to crying. And it just got worse every single tree I saw. Occasionally I tried taking pictures, but... well, you can see how they turned out.
At the corner where the fence turns 90° into the windbreak, I saw where they had gotten in - the d*** sheep damaged my fence to get in.
Even the "common" basalt rocks here frequently have (low quality) calcite crystals in their gas vesicles:
In some places on the cliffs, volunteer willows and birch cling on - taking advantage of the fact that they're inaccessible to sheep. Unfortunately for them, willows and birch love sun and fertile soil, while these locations are usually shady and in terrible soil (not even sure you can call it soil). So they're dwarfed. That said, whenever I pass then, I've taken to giving them a little fertilizer if I have any on-hand.
Trays done. Heading back to get the remaining trays.
Stark contrasts on the ravine. On the right side, the lack of nutrients and carbon in the soil makes it dry out easily, which makes it harder for plants to grow, which furthers the lack of carbon, which furthers the lack of nutrients in a vicious cycle (until recently, at least
It's getting better). On the left side, permanent water seeps keep the ground moist, encouraging plants to grow, laying down carbon, which helps retain nutrients and water, and creating a virtuous cycle of growth.
Leaving the empty trays by the car.
It is at this point - already late in the evening, when I'm just starting with the second half of the planting, that everything goes wrong.
I'm heading down along the north fence, east side of the driveway... and some sheep has ripped to shreds and uprooted a tree that I had just planted yesterday. I'm angry, but I replant it, and continue on. I go further... and there's another. I get angrier as I replant it. Then another. Then another. The entire bloody north fence on the east side, it just went down and destroyed 90% of the newly planted broadleafs there. 2 dozen? 3 dozen? I have never seen a massacre like this. In the past I've come and found many plants grazed, and it sucks because it keeps them from growing to a size that's safe from grazing, and they have to spend their energy regrowing leaf flushes instead of preparing for the winter (e.g. higher winter mortality), and I have to weed them because now they're smaller than the grass... but I've never before seen sheep just obliterate such a massive swath of trees. Yes, I replanted them all, but... my god, the damage.....
After I was about a third of the way down the fence, I just dropped the trays I was carrying. The anger turned to crying. And it just got worse every single tree I saw. Occasionally I tried taking pictures, but... well, you can see how they turned out.
At the corner where the fence turns 90° into the windbreak, I saw where they had gotten in - the d*** sheep damaged my fence to get in.
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