I'm required to keep a 100 ft perimeter of defensible space around my house, so I do need to clear quite a bit. I try to leave as much otherwise, recently (5 ish years) I had considerable sprouting of volunteer oaks. Probably 15 or so across my property, not sure if that's indicative of the land being healthier but we get a decent amount of wild mushrooms as well.

One of my relatives' primary concerns isn't ticks, it's mice getting into the house. Is that a valid concern? Personally I think just keeping a couple of indoor cats would offset encroaching rodents.

this is now canon in the pokemon universe

Yikes. One of those good in theory, but completely backfired ideas

Where tf do you live?

Nvm Canada. That would make sense in some places.

Destroyed no matter the cause? I've heard of laws like that for intentionally cutting down healthy trees, but it never applied to natural causes.

Is it kudzu? Shit's everywhere.

I love spiders.

That's really interesting! Do you have any links or more info on this process?

You don't.

Instead, you always have a roving band of chickens following you to eat them.

Basically, how can we, as humans, use our propensity for destroying entire species, but do it for the power of good, on purpose so we can eliminate ALL TICKS FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH‽

You foster a family of possums at the same time.

And actually in some places prarieland is probably more important for conservation.

In my case it was plant a couple of native fruit trees for me, dig a small perrenial pond and add some rocks so amphibians can feel safe, and sprinkle in seeds for native grasses, especially edible ones and let nature do it’s work. It was probably my favourite. Loved it.

Shame I don’t live there anymore.

This is just an example of course. Succession can look differently and lead to very different results, depending on where exactly it is happening.

I'd also argue, that leaving your garden alone to let succession run its course is not neccessarily the ideal to strive for. Even simply speeding up the process to get to the final stage isn't.

Gardens are a very different sort of ecosystem from an extended woodlands area and there are many ways to use them for human recreation and as a habitat for many species, that even exceed the biodiversity of the potentially naturally occuring ecosystem.
A trimmed suburban lawn is just one of the worst options.

Given time enough sand and leaves and other organic matter deposits in the soil, decomposed by long numbers of life cycles together with dirt and moisture becomes soil, but you cannot plant everywhere trees. Imagine plant an oak in the Sahara, no chance it’ll make it after 3 hours at noon. That’s what succession suggests!