I'd urge you to make multiple visits to the site, beginning right now. So, so many spring ephemerals are being destroyed by the building of "houses in the woods,plants that the property owners never even realize are there.

There must be some reason why folks insist on building on "wooded lots". I only wish they actually loved the woods. Of course, then they would not be building on-and destroying this resource.

Sorry for my tone, JB. This is really one of the things that tears at my heart. Your trees will likely be largely destroyed in the building process too. But because trees store large amounts of energy, you will probably not think back to this in five years when the tops of the largest trees-the very ones you probably want to "save", all start dying.

Thanks for the response but that didn't help much. All of the considerations to the woodland have acknowledged and it is under a land management program whereby invasive species will be removed, habitat will be maintained, and trees will be selectively harvested to allow for new growth. Actually, if I wouldn't be building there (which my house will take a small portion of the LARGE lot), it would likely be overrun with bush honeysuckle within a few years.

Everything will be okay, no need to weep.

Not weeping at this stage-I've been watching this slow-motion disaster unfold for decades. Nor am I making up one itty bitty thing in my post above. But go ahead, build your "house in the woods". I'll see you later in the Trees forum wondering if anyone knows of a good, cheap arborist to take some trees down. You simply cannot ram around in an established woods without drastically altering things like grade, hydrology, soil O2 levels, compaction..........there's more where those came from.

Nah, you've never seen the lot. I've got this!