On my tiny 5 acres it’s a battle every summer to keep the trees cut back.
Remember when scientists claimed the area around Mt St Helen’s would never recover? While there is no good hardwood and old growth in the area there are hundreds of thousands of small trees and other plant life and wildlife is thriving.
I needed a guy with a giant dozer to clear cedar from part of my 5. That's now a seeded somewhat native meadow. There's still a ton of trash cedar in one section that I am leaving for now. I also had to remove 24 dead or dying ash trees and have 24 more (at least). A few have managed to survive the ash borer for now, and I am hoping they are somehow immune (although I doubt it).
Meanwhile I have planted a wide variety of trees to see how they do. Some spruce for blocking the wind. Some relatively rare trees. Some pecans and apricots but also pawpaw, persimmon and mulberry. Some locust for fast growing firewood.