Hopefully this (currently un-tested) research will help others in my situation; as always, appreciate any feedback.
Hedge Goals: Must grow densely and remain evergreen in mixed sun conditions (partial shade to 4-6 hrs sun), heavy acidic clay, prunable to maintain at 10-15 ft high, zone 7a, relatively inexpensive (as there’s several hundred feet to fill in). Primary goals are privacy, wind break, and wildlife cover in a suburban area with lots of neighbors and strong cold winds coming from nearby open areas. Food production and flowers for pollinators are nice-to-have stacking functions (I realize that going evergreen instead of deciduous will reduce my food production). Hedges will receive rough pruning; mixing shrubs should increase diversity while maintaining a semi-regular appearance.
I’m also using a few small groves of running bamboo to increase privacy, maintained by mowing. Bamboo is great, but needs a good bit of width to establish a dense, healthy privacy hedge… space that I don’t always have on one acre. As a rhizome-spreading plant it wants to form roughly circular groves, not long skinny rectangular hedges.
Options:
1. Holly: does relatively well in sun-limited areas, produces bird food, deer resistant. Understory tree, will be leggy in partial shade but more dense in sun. Only female plants produce fruit. Plant every six feet for hedge. Good in acidic soil; my local VA forest has a few scattered hollies growing in understory.
https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/NellieStevensHolly
2. Arbovidae “green giant” thuja: Prefers full sun, may grow in partial shade, prunable to 15 ft but can grow much taller. Dense hedge, small cones/seed production.
3. Arbutus unedo, strawberry bush or tree: good to zone 7, small fruits, up to 12 feet tall, evergreen, requires partial to full sun.
4. Evergreen Huckleberry - Vaccinium ovatum: grows to 12 feet high in shade (does not grow as well in sun), evergreen, food producing.
https://onegreenworld.com/product/evergreen-huckleberry-2/
5. Pacific wax myrtle (Myrica californica): needs full sun, good to zone 7, evergreen, wildlife berry food, up to 20-30 ft high, fast growing.
6. Canadian Hemlock, grows well in shade, up to 70 ft high, can be pruned into a 10-15 ft hedge. No food production.
http://www.musserforests.com/prod.asp?p=CAH
7. Serbian Spruce: grows in partial shade, up to 50 ft high, probably prunable. No food production.
Http://www.musserforests.com/prod.asp?p=SES
8. Magnolia: These will grow quite tall, but are prunable to a hedge. Should do ok with some sun limitations.
https://www.monticelloshop.org/804700.html?mrkgcl=216&mrkgadid=2972262356&creative=9472837883&device=c&matchtype=e&msclkid=8e19784233041bb525bf243c47a6c334