[crocos]

Things can be trimmed down using WorldEdit - there's tricks that can be done to trim things that have been moved through but not altered, or have had only minimal amounts of alteration (such as only dirt blocks and torches placed, for example)

I don't know the actual HOW of it yet, just that it's done with WorldEdit as a script, offline, then reuploaded to the server.

However to save server resources: Lightspeed, do you know where you're actually going, or are you just wanting to explore? If it's the former, get a diamond pickaxe, 10 (or 14 if feeling compelled to be completionist) Obsidian, and go there via the nether portal at your base - just remember to divide the X and Z coordinates by 8 to get to the right location.

Going through the nether saves resource due to simply not needing to load as many chunks for the same distance.