thanks for your advice that is basically what I figured would have to be done, but I think leaving the bigger trees is a mistake by allowing them to grow more and further extend their root structure. I think it would be smarter to girdle the big trees and then cut them down this winter for us atleast since we have some hard freezes. In your situation maybe girdle and wait for a dry time when ground is hard and cut them down and remove as much root as possible... I also was thinking that if I put a mound of dirt on top of low cut stump maybe the dirt would replace the docomposing roots sounds good in theory

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