A buddies lease I used to hunt often, had the only timber on the lease clear cut. After a few years (now) the Deer are just passing through. Most of it has turned to thicket. Most of his lease was farmland. maybe twenty acres of woods. The Deer preferred to feed at the forest edge or at the most maybe a hundred yards from the trees.

The thing about thicket is it is usually made up of plants the Deer won't eat or it wouldn't grow that thick to begin with. Good cover but not really a feeding area. Thickets often grow to thick for Deer to move through them well. Good for small game, not really good cover for large ruminates. Hogs use it for cover.

The Deer did eat all of the replanted saplings.

Basically the hunting/management got a lot worse. Instead of choosing from maybe twenty Deer feeding at the forest edge, you have to settle for whatever is passing through. Now instead of harvesting Deer with the overall health of the herd in mind, you take what you can get.

What you have the first couple of years after the clear cut may be OK. Farther down the road, maybe not so good. The edible wild stuff growing after the cut may draw the Deer until it is depleted, then the other stuff takes over.