How much native growrth do you see in spring before poison ivy leafs out? If substantial, I'd not mow. I know it's labor-intensive, but I pull vines by hand and swipe cut stump of each with conc roundup. It really works and you'll see results immediately, without destroying the natives that I bet will rebound.

After the wild rose and large J. Honeysuckle are taken out, there is lot of "good" grass before Poison Ivy. The P.I. is just mixed with other plants and it is very hard to apply any chemical. Also, with the tall grasses, I can not get to the roots of remaining J. honeysuckle and P.I.

After mowing, I rake up the clippings and old vines. Still a lot of work to do...

I would plan to let nature take its course, but do some management along the way. As birds and the wind carry seeds into your woods, many types of shrubs and wildflowers may sprout. If you continue to remove the invasive species, and perhaps thin or remove some of the tree seedlings which grow too thickly, you may find that over time a nice selection of native plants will appear. I particularly enjoy native shrubs, and many have seeds that are carried in the guts of birds, so they are pretty good at finding your woods. Spring woodland wildflowers tend not to disperse as well as shrubs and summer and fall wildflowers such as asters and goldenrods, so you may eventually want to introduce them yourself, but you can wait and see what happens for a few years before you decide.

In my woods and wildflower gardens I try to follow the simple rule of not removing anything I cannot identify. That prevents me from pulling up some interesting native plant before it gets large enough for me to know what it is. I think most people garden following the opposite rule: they remove anything that they cannot identify assuming it is a weed (think about how you treat your lawn or tomato patch). That approach isn't much good for woodland gardening, however.

If you want some areas of the woods to remain open, then mow periodically. You should be able to mow in late summer and not disturb the spring wildflowers, if there are any spring wildflowers. Don't forget that there may be summer and fall wildflowers that will try to grow in open woods, so don't mow too much or you'll never let wildflowers become established. At first you might want to mow twice a month or so. This will stress the shrubs and vines like poison ivy, japanese honeysuckle, and multiflora rose - unlike grass they aren't adapted to being mowed repeatedly. Also, once you have mowed things you may be able to apply Roundup to the sprouting poison ivy to finish it off. If you have already mown and survived without a terrible rash, I think you are lucky. I have gotten really bad poison ivy rashes from just being around the area when someone mowed poison ivy. I don't like to use chemicals in my woods, but for poison ivy I have to make an exception becasue I am very allergic. Once the shrubs are under control I would mow not more than monthly to let wildlfowers bloom in between mowings. I also wouldn't mow all of the woods, just areas where you want to walk, picnic, etc.

Good Luck!

This is really helpful. I figure to take out and very old J. honeysuckle patch, there is not much choice, but to mow it and expose the roots. After the vines are taken out, I'll be happy to leave the grasses/flowers grow, may be mow it once or twice a year.