The many benefits of Dead Wood in a forest ecosystem
Hart Hagan
DEAD WOOD is here to say: "I get no respect. No respect, I tell you!"
Dead wood gets no respect, despite the many benefits of dead wood to the forest ecosystem. Climate "scientists" and the timber industry disregard the vital role of dead trees in a forest.
August 6, 2022. Louisville, Kentucky. Here is a garden variety log in the woods.
Here is a fallen log in the woods at the Louisville Nature Center, a publicly managed urban forest. I’m guessing this is a black cherry tree that fell 5-10 years ago.
Let’s talk about the many benefits of dead wood, including its vital role in providing food, water and nesting sites for the creatures of the forest ecosystem.
As dead wood ages, it becomes more porous, holding more water.
The sawdust and wood chips inside the log capture water and therefore become a source of water for decomposing organisms such as bacteria and fungi, moss and lichens. Also wood boring beetles and their larvae, which become bird food.
Everything needs water. Dead wood captures water for myriad species and the food chains in which they participate.
Pileated woodpeckers live off the insect larvae that populate standing dead trees, known as snags.
Pileated woodpecker (Canva stock photo)
Pileated woodpeckers are cavity nesting birds. Here (below) is a tree with many cavities, bored out by “primary cavity nesters,” the ones who make, or “excavate,” the cavity. Primary cavity nesters nest in the cavity once and then move on the following year, freeing up the space for secondary cavity nesters. They move on because otherwise they would be vulnerable to species-specific pests, pathogens and parasites.
Cherry or ash? Not sure. Taken in Jefferson Memorial Forest, Louisville. March, 2021.
Notice (above) the big holes and the small holes. The big holes are for nests. The small holes indicate that a woodpecker has been rooting around trying to find food, such as beetle larvae.
Notice the green moss on this fallen log, below.
Moss can grow here because the log absorbs water. This log has no bark. We know this log has been here for a few years, because it takes a few years for bark to fall off. After the bark does fall off, the log is able to absorb more water.
Here, below, is another standing dead tree, or snag. Notice the big holes for nests and the smaller holes for foraging. The bark is partially gone. This tree has been able to feed countless insect larvae and the birds who feed on them.
The timber industry wants us to believe that once a tree is dead, it has lost its value. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you remove this tree, you have not only removed years of bird food, you have removed a supply of valuable nutrients that would otherwise nurture the growth of the forest going forward.
This specimen, below, has seen better days, as a tree, but …
This dead tree continues to provide nesting sites and bird food. And when it rains, this snag captures rainfall and holds onto it, thus doing its part to reduce flooding and drought.
If you find this material interesting, please check out my upcoming online course Trees & Forests, starting December 5, and offered in conjunction with Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, a Boston-based nonprofit that seeks to change the conversation around climate change, so that nature-based solutions get their fair share of the air time.
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