/diy/ - Do It Yourself

I've torn down a collapsing retaining wall here. I was originally intending to rebuild it but now I think I'd rather turn it into a slope. The plan is to build a chicken coop here (although I'm not sure if it's the best spot since it won't get much sun in winter). Anyway, I thought the best thing to do is take soil from the top to fill it in and lower the height; however it looks like that's all full of roots from that tree. Would it be a bad idea to be digging out the soil there? I don't want to kill the tree