Please make note that I am just telling of past experience an NOT suggesting anyone try this. I am a native of Michigan now living in Arkansas. Growing up we had a small orchard of apples, pears and plums. In the late summer/early autumn as the fruit was ripe ready for harvest, at times the ground would be covered with fallen fruit, drawing oodles of honey bees. Being the ignorant kids that we were (stupid may better describe us), we could and would often catch the bees with our bare hands cupped together. We found that as long as we didn't crush or pinch the bees they would buzz around in our hands looking for a way of escape. Granted we got stung a time or two but were always ready, willing and able to try it again. Saying all that to reinforce that "honey bees" are not aggressive out in the field. Now, if you tamper with their dwelling place that's a different story. A lot of us here would LOVE to have a colony near us for pollination purposes. Seeing a honey bee is a rarity in my neck of the woods. You are blessed. Do what you feel you need to do to be comfortable and feel safe in your own back yard! Good luck!

I guess our yard is a good size ... we have 1/3 acre ... and we love it ... but when the tree service cut down our maple, he said "These trees shouldn't be grown in small yards like yours." It kind of intimidated us to planting anything but "small" trees. Nevertheless, as I have been aptly reminded by many comments here, and I thank you for them, our yard really isn't that tiny, and there is a lot we can do. I just remembered that my neighbor is growing a white pine at the back of their property, so I don't know what I am worrying about. We do have a large white pine at the far back corner of our property, so there is shade there, but not until the afternoon. We love that tree even though it's huge (80' I'd guess). The rest of the backyard is a blank canvas. Thanks for all the suggestions ... we will look around more & consider all our choices & not be too hasty. The thermometer said 98 today ... this shouldn't be until July !

You can't add enough gravel or soil to flatten the slope enough to make a suitable badminton court without killing trees. If there are small holes, you can fill them to even out the ground a bit to make for easier mowing, but I wouldn't do more than that. It's clear that the ground is getting enough sun for a light layer of shade tolerant grass, but even if the ground was level, this type of grass isn't dense enough IME to stand up to the foot traffic that a sports area gets. If you want a badminton court, I would put it in a spot that is level and has enough sun to grow dense grass. This might require a low retaining wall with proper footings and the removal of more trees or siting elsewhere. The area you showed in the photos will be most easily maintained for now with mowing I think, though as the trees fill in branches to take advantage of the new light and space created by tree removal, it will not continue to support grass, so you may want to plant a groundcover - depending on the type of trees, you may have issues growing many plants since shallow-rooted trees compete for moisture and nutrients with herbaceous plants and shrubs. In my area there are some energetically spreading ferns that make a lovely ground cover in this type of area. At least if you are in the eastern half of North America, you will have weeds, particularly woody weeds (maples, honeysuckle, buckthorn, oaks, etc.) since this area always moves towards forest if left to its own. So to my mind, the woody plants seeding in is a far greater issue than removing leaves from gravel in the fall. Mowing will discourage woody plants from seeding in - that's how we returned our brushy fields back to fields and how we keep the woody plants from becoming reestablished both in the fields and along the sometimes shaded road verges. And you can't mow gravel, so weeds (woody and herbaceous) would need to be removed by hand if you spread gravel since even a weed whacker can throw gravel to a point of being dangerous. Gravel is a fine mulch if you live in a very dry area, but not good in areas with a respectable amount of rain IME.

Italian Cypress, yes. They look thirsty to me. California has been in a drought for years. They are planted very close together so they are competing with each other for root space, water, and so forth. I've got some taller than that that are 10 years old, but mine are not so closely planted so they've retained their foliage down to the ground. Trees here where the Santa Anas are very intense tend to fall when we get a wind event a week or two after a very heavy rain. This is because softened moist soil due to the rain will allow more rocking action in strong winds. Have never seen an Italian Cypress fall--usually they just die upright. Eucs, Oaks, Pines, those are the "fall guys".