Don't quote me on this but I think a lot of the change has to do with fire and flood suppression. Certainly on the Konza prairie and similar areas, small trees (post oaks and eastern red cedar) grew in natural fire breaks like bluffs, and individual trees would live for several hundred years. Floodplains would have large cottonwoods which can withstand seasonal inundation but wouldn't necessarily be thick forest otherwise. And the prodigious lightning storms and (throughout the Holocene) burning by native tribes for hunting kept trees off of the uplands.
Do not quote me either but you are correct. Prairies depend on fire as do most native forests. Many trees are dependent on fire for their off-spring to succeed (Jack Pine, Red/White Pine, Bur/Northern/Pin Oak) and to kill off invasive species (prairies). Prescribed burns are critical in maintaining these eco-systems and are an under utilized resource. They require 'perfect' conditions (temp, humidity, timing, human resources), so are rarely done correctly if done at all. Source wildland firefighter in another life.