"Way Back Jack" wrote in message

TV documentaries and travelogues reveal a lot of lush "green" in those
countrysides but a relative scarcity of trees. Is it climate? Too
windy in Ireland? Sheep and/or other livestock?

I've not noticed a lack of trees in most of Britain when I've been there.
The north western parts of Scotland certainly lack trees and the vegetation
of the Burren in Ireland is well known internationally (but not for it's
trees). Scotland used to be covered by the Calidonian Forest and had wolves
and beaver but I can't recall why it went belly up. Ireland suffered from
ice coverage during the Ice Ages so any trees there had to come back as
pioneer species.

Large numbers of people, 'modern farming' and trees don't go together. As
the population grew the trees would have had to go, or in some instances,
'modern farming' methods were the cause of clearance too. Ireland's
population exploded after the introduction of the potato and you can't grow
spuds in forests so even if there had been a desire to grow more trees,
there would have been a strong disincentive to do so.