I have a large section of my property covered in very poorly maintained woods. It's overgrown in a bad way... Lots of dead trees... I live next to a quarry. Lots of wind...I've begun cleaning it up a bit. It's all slope... ALL SLOPE... Lots of japanese barberry but also wild ginger! A stand of about 7 black maples, and about 8 black walnuts... tons tons tons of those things that grow sideways and make it impossible to walk through.... I just got a chainsaw. And one of those ryobi battery powered hedge trimmers. I'm unstoppable...except for when the chain falls off the saw... Im stoppable... I'm including some photos. I made some steps down where I walk regularly to prevent erosion. One workers for heller's gas left his expensive trenching shovel here one day (score!!) so I dug out some shallow trenches while it was soft a few days after it had rained. and put some of those landscaping big wood things they use for drainage in there. They were pulled from my yard by my wife and I because they were put there by the old owner for drainage but they were falling apart from age... We dragged them into the entrance of our woods and I said I'd find a use for them. I did. I backfilled that with loose stones from near the quarry next door. Then I got the great idea to dump my walnut hulls there to compost since its not for the garden, and I figured it would just make more soil like material over the winter. I've been working that way trying to step my way down to the less steep grade. The neighbors house is like not too far from there. Theres a little clearing it opens up into, under a big big walnut tree. To the left theres all those things that grow sideways and a real steep slope. My property goes for a good distance in that direction . The slope is lined on top with that stand of black maples I mentioned earlier. It's a wonderful plot of land I'd like to stabilize the grade, eliminate invasive species, and make it a usable beautiful space. I really want to be able to garden that like I do the rest of my land, I want a little spot to sit in privacy, with shade plants. Maybe even something edible... Ps that house in the photos is mine. It's to show the path I made up the slope

Looks like a nice wooded area . Hope you can make the private space you want. Keeping the invasive plants out will be a challenge , but plenty of area for lots of interesting shade plants.

I have many years of experience gardening a wooded property. Getting enough light through the tree canopy is often a challenging problem - it gets awfully expensive to have tree company come out and thin the canopy every few years. Besides, they trample the shade garden every time they come out. Thirty years ago, I diligently removed all the invasives in my 2 acre yard - most troublesome were the vines (honeysuckle, euonymus, English ivy, vinca, virginia creeper) and the dense eurasian honeysuckle. I planted shade loving perennials and a variety of interesting trees and shrubs. I even put in an extensive watering system. But over the years, the relentless invasives are winning back territory. Deer have become much more prevalent and damaging. And I just don't have the energy/stamina I had many years ago. As a result of all these factors, I now garden a much smaller area and the deeply wooded areas are being reclaimed by mother nature. So I guess my only advise is to try to be realistic about the effort which will be required to maintain a large area of woods. But I still love the wooded part of my garden, even though it's not the marvel it used to be.

What do you mean with 'stabellizing the grade'?

The entire wooded area is a big slope that seems to be getting steeper but that might just be me. I'm not sure how hills work exactly when it comes to walking around on them regularly I'm probably overthinking something that's not a problem. I guess I just want to make it more habitable and flatter in large step like forms. I've been using wood I cut up that was fallen on some living trees and I made make shift steps. Trenched about 4 inches then stuck some big branches to brace it. I then backfilled it with leaves and walnut husks from harvesting and a few big rocks. I'm hoping it will naturally become the new level. It's just like a nice path down there. But the whole area is pretty difficult to trek through. Though it's getting much better.