The old woodlot (formerly called the Ash Woods until all the ash trees were cut down because of emerald ash borer damage) has suffered another setback this winter. Many, many trees have been ringed by hungry animals, mostly voles working under the snow and eating the bark at the base of the trees. Rabbits have chewed some shrubs, but the majority is the work of voles. It has been a long, cold, very cold, winter and they are just trying to survive too, but it does mean that the old woodlot will lose many more trees now, all of them much younger of course, than the mature ash that were removed.