Snags and Downed Logs

Snags and Downed Logs (N.C. State University Cooperative Extension)
Creating or protecting snags and downed logs is a simple, low-cost habitat improvement that has great benefits for a wide range of wildlife species.

Dead Wood for Wildlife  (Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences)
Dead limbs and trees are a natural and desirable part of wildlife habitat. The existence of numerous species depends on the presence of dead trees.

Snags for Wildlife (Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection)
Over 85 species of North American birds, 35 of which occur in the Northeast, use cavities in dead or deteriorating trees. Snags also provide essential habitat requirements for cavity-using amphibians, reptiles and mammals. Snags are used for nesting, shelter and feeding sites.

Keeping Dead Wood and Creating Wildlife Habitat Piles: Some Guidance for Forest Owners (Northwest Natural Resource Group) Forests naturally include some trees that have succumbed to disease, pests storm events, or old age – some disease decay and tree death is normal in a healthy forest. Damaged dead, deformed, and dying trees are hotspots of biodiversity and biological legacies.

Creating a Wild Backyard – Snags and Logs (Maryland Department of Natural Resources)
Trees are like any living thing. They have infancy, youth, maturity, old age and death. As the tree ages and eventually dies, changes in the bark and wood create habitat for animals suited to each stage in the life and death of the tree. Dead trees are called “snags” and when snags fall to the ground, they are called logs.

Snags: Dead Trees Support Wildlife (University of Vermont Department of Plant and Soil Science)
When you hear the word “snag”, you may think of a run in a stocking or pulled thread in a fabric.  In the natural and landscape contexts a snag (sometimes called “wildlife tree”) is a dead or dying tree that, hard to believe, can support more life than a living tree.  Think of them as wildlife condos.

Why Dead Trees are Important to Wildlife (Pennsylvania Game Commission)
There’s no denying they don’t seem to offer much that property owners find appealing. They’re messy and leafless. Insect-infested. And, in some instances, even threatening. But landowners should know that the benefits dead trees or snags provide wildlife are immense.