Keep It Wild
The first and best thing you can do, if you have an existing natural area on your property, is to let it stay that way. While naturalized gardens, tree planting and ecological restoration can help bring back some of the ecological benefits of a natural area to a piece of land, it can take an extremely long time for it to become established enough to have the same characteristics as an untouched piece of land. This is due to the fact that it will take a long time for species missing from the site to move in - if indeed they ever do. In many cases, the distance to an established natural area may be too far for species to cross. As such, it's always better to protect an existing developed ecosystem if you have one, rather than trying to start from scratch.
If you are in the process of developing land for a new home, work with your developers to see that as much of the original landscape as possible is left in tact, whether that means not cutting down trees or preventing a section of meadow from being bulldozed unnecessarily.
