Goats, cattle and sheep injure young seedlings by browsing.

They eat the tender shoots of the trees.

The trampling of sheep, especially on steep hills, damages the very young trees.

On mountain sides the trampling of sheep frequently breaks up the forest floor of sponge-like grass and debris and thus aids freshets and floods.

In the Alps of France sheep grazing destroyed the mountain forests and, later on, the grass which replaced the woods.