thanks.

Why do people do that? Everything looks better with large trees! After hearing that, I think I'd be inclined to leave the trees and wait to see signs of distress. It does seem like maples can take a lot. The house across the street had a maple that was planted directly under the power lines, so aside from the trunk, the top of the tree was cut in a C. To say it looked odd...! My best friend had maple trees over in Braidwood. She really wanted to plant under them. The roots were practically on top of the soil, so she had someone haul in soil and we spread it out over top of all those roots. When it came to planting, we were forever running into roots. She got out the sawzall and that's how we cut the roots. I've read that you don't put soil over roots, there was no talking her out of it. That was over 18 yrs ago and the trees, when they moved out 2 yrs ago, were still fine. Now this is nothing compared to what's happened to yours. So I don't know. It's just with the birds that you're seeing, I'd be inclined to leave them. I do know a guy though that has a sawzall. I'd probably go ahead and buy a redbud and borrow that sawzall and go ahead and plant the redbud. But that's me and I've done it before. Gray dogwood must be more tame for other people. That was another shrub that we had to remove. At the back of our very small lot, we have a privacy fence. The gray dogwood was near it, then we made a path leading from the garage to a door we'd made in the fence. After 4 yrs the dogwood was coming up on the other side of the fence, the other side of the path and you could tell that the roots were going under the garage. We've got cracks in the floor, so who knows when it's going to pop up! Ha! I planted Silky dogwood the year after I planted the Gray dogwood. I'm not finding the Silky to be anywhere near as aggressive as the Gray was. They have it for sale at the plant sale you're going to. It's Latin name is Cornus obliqua. I also have the Corylus americana. I like it, I like it a lot. For some reason, after I planted it, the Japanese Beetles showed up. I'd never had them before. Maybe just a coincidence. It's a spreader too, but much easier to control with the spade. There's also more viburnums that would do great in shade. I know it says sun to part sun, most of mine are in shade and doing great.

The Serviceberry tree is a small one, with dangling white inflorescences in spring. It produces berries that look a bit like blueberries, but darker, and the birds love them. Elderberry bushes produce a berry that birds also love--but they reseed quite readily, depending on where you plant them. They can be rather gangly looking unless they get full sun.

Here is a link to the other thread so you can see floral’s suggestions which included monocots like solomon’s Seal, Uvularia, etc. https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5315516/unknown-plant-in-my-in-city-native-plant-meadow-prairie-savannah