Standing dead snags can house wildlife for decades after a tree dies
When a large tree dies but stays upright, it becomes a snag — a vertical apartment block of cavities, loose bark, and insect galleries that living timber rarely offers.
Woodpeckers excavate nests; owls, bats, and flying squirrels inherit the holes; beetles and fungi recycle the wood from the inside out. In old-growth stands, snags can remain useful habitat for decades.
Death is not an exit from the forest economy. Leaving some snags standing keeps biodiversity that clear-cut “tidy” forests erase overnight.
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