FishinRod, if you get back into your new thickets check to see if they've been browsing the tops you fell. Dropping tree tops is a common strategy to help deer through the winter (up north where it's harsher). I've done it a few times during particularly cold spells. Deer love freshly dropped trees for both cover and food!
I didn't see any obvious browsing when I was checking out the deer action, but probably missed some.
Every fall I do coppice a few elms down to a low stump. It doesn't seem to hurt them, and they explode with new growth the next spring.
I wish I was smart enough to figure out how the deer pick their trees for browsing. Some of those trees look like "chia pets" by the next fall. The deer browse every single new shoot on the tree, so the tree just pushes out more new shoots. Eventually, the tree has hundreds of twiggy little stems. Other elms I cut the exact same way, the deer never touch. Three new leaders grow from the stump and the darn tree is 20' tall again in two years.
P.S. You have some beautiful bucks in your pictures!
