No better group for you to get involved with than the Virginia Native Plant Society. They will help you learn all about native woodland conditions in your area.

They also have lots of resources on their website that would help. You can also visit the Maryland Native Plant Society website and use some of their information (I think they have good plant lists).

Here is a link that might be useful: VNPS

A great start is to search gardenweb on the subject. So much excellent advice for wet areas has already been posted. I started here and made a list of plants and trees on my computer from the suggestions. As people add places to shop at or avoid, or recommend plants, I revise my list. I had to clean up my wet property too, and that really helped me get a feel of what was there. I used this site to identify plants I found. I learned I had many good plants already. Blue lobelia, a brilliant colored wetland flower sprouted for free in a soggy spot I cleared. Another trash dump area became a fern garden for free after I cleared the trash and let the leaves pile up naturally. It seemed impossible at first because I didn't have a clue, but slowly it sinks in. I can now identify quite a few plants. The internet makes it all possible. For instance, box elder seedlings look just like poison ivy - almost. Studying poison ivy sites on the internet I was finally able to make the distinction. Great site:
http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/picqna.html

I also use the website of endangered and threatened plants for my state to improve my list. I just ordered a package of wetland seedlings based on a chat I read here. Five each of buttonbush, dogwood, nannyberry, winterberry, wild grape for $20. Many states offer native seedling packs in spring to residents, and sometimes non residents. My wetland wish list includes red mulberry tree (threatened here but I know it grows well since I have a hybrid already), swamp birch, swamp milkweed, elderberry, arrowwood viburnum, swamp rose, serviceberry, pussywillow, american bittersweet. Two gorgeous plants I want that love water are swamp rose mallow, and queen of the prairie. My last advice: when you see a good suggestion on this site write it down. Sometimes I can never find that reference again and I have lost many good suggestions that way

Here is a link that might be useful: A State Forest Nursery Site

If you clear out the aliens, and are vigilant about keeping them out, natives may reappear from the soil's own seedbank or from surrounding areas. Depends on how long the area was been farmed.

I strongly suggest that you study your woodland carefully to figure out what kind it is--there are many native forest communities, each with its own distinctive grouping of trees, shrubs, and understory plants. Take a look at the guide to eastern forests in the Peterson series to identify your forest. Once you've done that, you can concentrate on replanting what's missing. The result is sure to be a diverse and natural community.

I am going through the same experience as you with your garden. I bought a five-acre plot with 3 acres of woods. There's rusting farm equipment, bottles, everything is overgrown, etc.

Step one for me was to have the owner of a native plant nursery in Ann Arbor come out for a one-hour consultation. It was the best fifty bucks I've ever spent on my yard. He pointed out which plants and trees needed to go. I learned that my property is the host of a massive garlic mustard invasion, and the wild grape was everywhere and really needed to be taken off the higher quality trees.

After laying down a foot-wide woodchip trail and cutting all the branches that threatened my eyes on the trail, I'm starting to clean up the woods. This job has been much bigger than I'd imagined. Rather than burning or chipping the massive amount of dead limbs in the woods, I'm piling them up at the edge of the woodland into a brushpile for the birds and rabbits. So far I've probably hauled out fifty trashcans of dead limbs. This is not necessary, and other gardeners might even skip this step, but I think the garden looks more alive without all the dead stuff obscuring the arrangement of trees. With the biggest of the "dead stuff" taken out, it looks and feels more peaceful, like a park. The walks are more pleasant, and I spend more time there.

Now that it's slowly getting cleaned up, my baby and I enjoy long hikes. As long as it's at least 40 degrees, we go for a walk every day on our own private nature trail and I dream of what it's going to look like "someday."

Laura