Thank you!

You may have webs from multiple causes. We agree the webbing at and near ground level looks like those of spiders, though they're such a diverse group that we can't necessarily identify them to type. As to why your yard supports so many, we can only guess...perhaps your neighbors are using more pesticides (removing the spider's prey and/or killing the spiders directly) or your yard simply has more desirable habitat. Are you perhaps downwind of other yards? Spiderlings disperse after hatching via "ballooning," where they waft around on breezes attached to silken threads. Maybe due to air currents you just happen to be at the point nearby spiderlings tend to drift back down to the ground.

You are correct that spiders are beneficial to have around, since they consume other insects we often consider pests. If you happen to regularly use a sprinkler system, this moisture might be making the webs more prominent then they otherwise would be as the droplets cling to the silk. (And if you do run irrigation often, consider reprogramming the system since that schedule can be harmful or otherwise unhelpful to plants.) English Ivy and Vinca, the groundcovers we see in the photos, are such dense, aggressive carpeting plants that maybe they're helping hold the moisture under foliage and are helping support spider and ground-dwelling insect health during times of high heat and dry weather.

We do not recommend intervention (especially since the most immediately impactful method would involve pesticides), but you can physically brush away any webs that bother you with a broom or a stick, such as any you can reach on the house itself. Many spiders take down and rebuild their webs every day or so anyway, but frequent damage to a web may make them move elsewhere.

Prominent webs due to spiders in the birch trees aren't likely unless they're the classic radial orb-weaver type of web. If clusters of foliage or branch tips are webbed together, that could very well be webworm or another caterpillar. On mature trees with minimal webbing, it's nothing to be concerned about and birds may yet pick off a number of the individuals. While we don't make site visits, you're welcome to send photos of these tree webs if you aren't certain what caused them.

Miri