To remain healthy, a woods or prairie in our area needs some periodic removal of brush. When the ground is wet, keep machinery and trucks off your yard and soil. Soil and tree roots are badly compacted and damaged by heavy equipment. Also try not to bang trees with mowers or other machinery. Avoid using chemicals on your yard because they may cause premature tree death.
Liquid fertilizers wind up in wetlands and streams where they kill plants and animals.
Use fertilizers composed of organic materials. Try not to use much salt on driveways or sidewalks, as this only adds increased stress to plants. The genetic stock of trees from nurseries can be from almost anywhere. An oak sapling from a nursery may have been grown from an acorn collected in Kentucky. In contrast, the old trees on your property are survivors which have incorporated the local climactic and biological influences into their genetic makeup.