When I first bought my land, I loved all the trees that it had and wanted to keep as many as I could. I had to take out a few nice ones in order to get utilities to the land, and at the time, I hated to see them go, but thinking back on it, I can't really remember them other then they where big projects to get rid of. I've learned that no matter how nice the tree is, I don't miss them when they are gone. My thinking has changed over the years to "less is more" type of thinking.
My land is super thick jungle, and I left too many trees close to my house when I built it. Now I'm going to have to deal with them, and wish that I had done it before building. Before I build my fence, I'm going to make sure every tree is gone from my fence line so that I can mow it easily, and the trees do not drop branches on the fence or fall over onto it. Last year my neighbor had well over a dozen places that branches fell off of his trees and destroyed his fence. His mistake when building his fence too close to his trees is my example of what not to do.
The more I clear the land, the more I like it.
A Texas State Biologist told me that a couple hundred years ago, the natural condition of the land was for the trees to be spread out with the under-story being mostly open. Fire and thousands of years of competition chocked out all the underbrush and saplings. Then people started farming the land, then abandoning the farms, and the land started to return to forest naturally, which meant small trees growing up right next to each other, and choking out the under-story that has eliminated the natural habitat for wildlife. We actually have too many trees here now, which isn't natural or healthy.
