Depends on your goals. I’d love to have some big towering trees around me, but I also love gardening and laying in the sun. One big tree in an inopportune could shade my entire yard.

Note that posing a risk doesn't just mean "if giant tree were to fall toward house it would be a problem." Obviously, you should monitor the health of any giant tree nearby, but by and large healthy trees growing tall is not an immediate concern. Moreover, some of those trees would be perfectly healthy if you kept them pruned to a safer height.

So, posing a risk is more on trees that are likely to fall over and do major damage. Or those that have root systems that are too close to your foundation and going to cause issue in that way.

All of this is said as someone that loves giant trees nearby. Seeing eagles and such nest at the top of trees that are hundreds of feet tall is very cool.

Edit: Also consider fire hazard to the house, depending on where you live.

I'm still not totally certain how to "manage" the trees in our yard. We are in a quite woody area with huge trees. I contacted an arborist place last year and plan on paying them to come out and teach me about the trees on my property. The previous owners cutdown some huge trees, but luckily mainly concentrated on the trees that were super close to the house. It's possible remaining trees could hit the house, and they are actually relatively likely to snap off at some point due to the wind. But I think it's relatively unlikely it will happen and we have insurance if it does. I could remove the possibility and also completely remove ticks as well if I transformed the yard into concrete, but that is of course completely self-serving. My neighbor recently had a tree crack and slightly hit his house. I can't see any real damage from my point of view, but I can only describe it as him waging war against trees on his property afterward. He removed 99% of the remaining trees on his yard (these are huge trees), including ones that couldn't hit his house even if they broke at the base of the trunk (which they never do).

Another house that has sit empty for a year and a half recently cutdown all its trees. Literally all the trees. All that's left is a graveyard of stumps, which makes it look like a warzone from WWI or something. There was probably 50 trees cutdown.

There's no way I'm cutting down the oaks, and I'm unlikely to cutdown any tree, even if it's dead since even those support insects, owls, woodpeckers, and other birds.

What was the reasoning to cut down 50+ trees? That feels excessive in any world.

Loggers pay good money for straight, quality trees.

It's true, but just to clarify for people out there: "yard trees" bring less, and maybe nothing...if you can get someone out there. It's because there's usually only one or a few in that spot, they're difficult to get to (behind a house), and they're full of metal that will damage saw blades (like that clothes line pulley someone put up in 1930).

I have no idea. The house has literally sat completely empty for well over a year. The tree cutting was the first activity I have ever seen there. I don't know if they plan on tearing the house down and rebuilding or what. I also have no idea if there's someone who actually plans to live there or if it's owned by an investor.

It's possible I overestimated, but it has to be at least over two dozen trees. And these are not small trees. There's of course smaller ones but others are easily over 40-50 feet.

50+ has to be weighed against the total volume of trees. If you have too many trees in a small space, none of them thrive. It can be valuable to actively thin the forest so that you have a smaller number of thriving trees rather than a larger number of struggling trees.

If someone planted 50+ trees that are a terrible fit for the lot, well that's a good reason to take them out too, hopefully with replacements.

Personally, I live on a large lot with hundreds of trees, and it would be easy to select 50 trees that would be reasonable to cut down, and you'd hardly notice. But the only large tree we cut down was a (non native) cottonwood planted near the house that had bifurcated and was likely to fall on the house in the foreseable future. When we thin the forest, it's mostly younger trees in thick growth that don't have room to grow well.

I mean, not wrong, but doesn't seem in the spirit of the upper post. "All that's left is a graveyard of stumps" does not sound like someone thinning out a forest. Or even preparing a lot for a house, since you will have to grind out all of the stumps.

FWIW: In my area it is not uncommon for "off-grid" properties to cut down a number of trees around structures, as fire prevention. While 50 does sound like a lot, depending on the density and proximity to a house and the potential path of a fire, it may be reasonable. On the other hand, if a house had sat empty for a while, say in an estate sale type situation, it could be the estate trying to make a buck off some lumber while wood prices have been high.

I know someone who's property was clearcut by a previous owner that knew they were gonna be foreclosed on as a "fuck you" at the bank. Which is a shame as the trees on the other side of the property line are beautiful and old.

I don't know where you live, but a lot of municipalities make what your neighbors are doing illegal. Might want to check.

Thank you for leaving the dead … super important habitat!

Also wanted to mention the importance of diversity. Everybody thinks trees trees trees but, at least where I live, native prairie plants are just as, if not more important, and are unfortunately largely ignored.

That's a good point. I am mainly concentrating on plants and haven't even got to bushes or trees yet, in terms of planting. I will want some professional advice on where to place the trees I'd like to plant. I want to plant trees for looks, to return some areas back to trees where some were previously cut down, and to also re-block a backyard neighbor (another one) who tore down all their trees.

The plants are really fun because you can just basically plant them anywhere and see how they do. They take quickly and don't pose any harm to infrastructure.

Fallen trees killing people is not unheard of.

Similar situation. Maybe sharing my experience might help someone:

We're in a cold climate, so one of our goals is to have more deciduous (leafy) trees on the southern side. This provides shade in summer but solar heat in winter.

Right now in that location is an overgrown ~60 year pine replant. Bad for sun, bad for fire. After taking down a total of 50 (!) dead spindly pines, the building now gets noticeably more sun, but you can hardly notice a difference in forest density. But it gave a lot more room (and sun) for the maples and oaks already coming up.

To choose trees, I took a sun path app and walked back and forth along the south wall. This let me choose only dead pines that were shading the building in winter.

I avoid burning. The pine logs now rot peacefully (waterlogged) on the forest floor, feeding fungus while they buffer rainfall and cover chipmunk holes. Don't worry, there's still abundant dead stand habitat as well.

For ticks, you might consider chickens and/or ducks. Note that they will eat and scratch everything, so you might get one of those cheap solar electric fence enclosures. You can enclose a large area for little cost, leaving some habitat areas where toads and salamanders won't get gobbled up!

So sad to hear about thoughtless clearcutting. I cringe every time.

Cheers and good luck

It seems that trees interlock their roots to prevent them from falling. So make sure trees are not lonely. Trees then would have to break to fall. And here you can trim the long branches to decrease the weight.

> I'm unlikely to cutdown any tree, even if it's dead since even those support insects, owls, woodpeckers, and other birds.

Be careful doing this with any tree that can potentially fall on your home or one of your neighbors'. You will have a lot more trouble getting insurance to pay out if they find out you knew the tree was dead.

Trees can also be quite dead and need to come down without much external visible issues.

https://treeandneighborlawblog.com/ Has interesting stories tangentially related to tree duties.

Somewhat interestingly, trees can also be quite dead and perfectly safe not being brought down. Even healthy for the forest. I'm looking at a dead tree just outside my house that is quite pretty and perfectly fine where it is.

> Native plants may be easy; but by that measure, invasives are where its at. :D

I can only agree. I ate a ton of dandelion last summer and can't wait to do it again this year.

Interesting! I've been drinking dandelion root coffee for a few years alongside regular decaf and it's great (although a bit subtle). What part and in what form did you eat it, leaves, root, flower?

Oh cool I tried dandelion root as a tea and didn't like it much but I think I need to try it again. We dried it, ground it, and ran it through a french press. Is that similar to what you did?

We pick the leaves early in the season (March/April in Colorado) and they're not too bitter and work great sauteed, or raw in a wrap. We also put extra in freezer bags, freeze them, then blend them up in a shake and that's pretty good. Because of the shape of the plant I found that it collects dirt really easily, so picking a more mature plant is not only more bitter but also tougher to get all the gunk off the leaves.

The heads are good too. Let the dandelion bloom, then as soon as the blooms close again we go out and pick them. I tend to just eat them as I'm doing other things in the yard but they keep for a little while in the fridge too. I threw some in a stir-fry once and it was pretty good. They're juicy, slightly sweet, and maybe a little nutty. Wait too long though and it's just fluff on the inside which doesn't taste that great.

One year we picked the flowers while they were still yellow and dried them, then we baked them into cookies. It was a lot of picking but it tasted pretty good.

Yes - actually I use store bought rather than homemade, the brand is Cotswold (here in the UK) and I suspect it's pretty expensive for what you get, probably because of the processing involved. Interesting to hear of the uses, I'm going to try it this year - there will be no shortage of dandelions in our yard. Culturally here there's a bias against eating dandelion, as a child I had it drummed into me that touching one will make you wet the bed!

My neighbor cut down and chipped a large area of mostly dead trees. Maybe his original intent was to clear the area and expand his back yard but it's been 2 years and it's still just a bunch of ugly stumps and brush. I have a lot of woodpeckers around and it makes me sad that they lost a bunch of homes - woodpeckers primarily nest in dead/dying trees.