The life of dying trees
When it comes to creating a haven for wildlife on your property, there is a huge amount of information available, whether from books or via the Internet. One of my favorite books, “The Birds Around Us,” has an entire chapter titled, “Attracting Birds.” Its seventy pages make up over twenty percent of the book, including details on selecting and placing plants (both for food and for shelter/nesting), all the different ways you can provide water for drinking and bathing, bird feeders and feed, nesting materials and sites, and birdhouses.
All these things are important and they’re fun to do. Plus it feels good to do something to help support wildlife, to replace the natural elements that we removed as we have expanded our collective human “footprint.” But there are also things you can NOT do that are equally important. It is often helpful to simply let nature take its course. Such is the case with snags.
What is a snag? If you look it up in a dictionary, you’ll find that a snag is simply a standing dead tree. But it’s so much more than that, and that’s why you might want to think twice before cutting one down.
When a tree is alive, it produces oxygen, provides shade and nesting sites, and helps to hold the soil together. Depending on the species, it also provides food (either via nectar or leaves) for birds and insects. It’s easy to think that when a tree is dead it no longer has any use, but spend a little time with a dead or dying tree and you’ll discover that it forms its own little ecosystem, providing benefits to a host of wildlife.
It starts small, with fungi gaining a foothold in the rotting bark and underlying wood. As the wood softens, insects take up residence. Birds come to feed on the insects. According to the Penn State Extension website, “Ecologists believe dead wood is one of the greatest resources for animals species in the forest.” (https://extension.psu.edu/dead-wood-forwildlife)
The article describes how smaller animals such as salamanders, snakes, mice, and shrews “seek refuge in rotting logs.” Skunks, bears, and woodpeckers will frequent these “cafeterias” in search of food. The organic mate-
terial that accumulates is perfect for mushrooms, which in turn attract “insects, turtles, birds, mice, squirrels, and deer.” Greater and lesser gray tree frogs may be found in hollow trees, under loose bark, or in rotted logs.
In addition to providing food, dead trees and the limbs they drop provide housing. According to the website, “Standing dead trees... and dead parts of live trees offer both room and board for many kinds of wildlife. Tree cavities in live or dead trees are used by 35 species of birds and 20 species of mammals in Pennsylvania.” Plenty to consider before taking down a dead tree.
On my own property, I have been watching the demise of a large, mature pin oak tree for well over a decade. When the tree first started to fail I felt a huge amount of sadness. One of my joys in the spring and summer months was sitting under the tree, watching birds flying in and out of it as if it were some kind of aerial hotel. As the years have passed, I’ve been able to come to a point where I can appreciate the beauty of the dying tree.
Sure, I still miss the sheer beauty and liveliness of the tree. But now when I look at it I see the shelters hollowed out by cavity-nesting birds. And instead of the canopy, I enjoy seeing birds — raptors, in particular — perch on the very top branch, looking for prey. By night, owls also perch there, hooting their love-calls.
Note: Location is everything. If you do decide to leave a dead tree standing, make sure that it’s in an area where dropping branches will not pose a danger to people or pets.