fancy way to plant trees, you put the giant stump in a hole and see if it grows.

Heh, tree stumps are a pain in the ass, the normal area clearing tactic if you want flat ground is you dig a borrow pit, carefully jenga as many unwanted stumps as you can find into the pit and cover it over. You end up with a lot of extra fill gravel and no stumps. It settles in time but its a very slow process. If you have miles of extra land, often you make a mountain of stumps and cover with enough soil that they will start to decompose. takes about 30 years to half decompose.

Oh certainly! lots of mental planning and letting the machines do the work.