Today my sheep were actively converting first-succesional forest back into grassland.  The edge of one of the fields was starting to grow in with a thick stand of (I think) quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), and I’ve been meaning to let the sheep have their way with it all season; I finally got the grazing sequence to align with that patch today.

The sheep were as enthusiastic about the aspen leaves as I’d hoped.

By this afternoon, they had mostly denuded the saplings.  I’m hoping another couple of passes like this and the encroaching forest will rethink its advance on the pasture.