The Life in Dead Trees

By Terry Krautwurst
Published on August 1, 2004
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“Snag” is the traditional forestry word for a standing dead, or partially dead, tree. Recently, though, biologists have adopted a more descriptive and deserving term: wildlife tree.
“Snag” is the traditional forestry word for a standing dead, or partially dead, tree. Recently, though, biologists have adopted a more descriptive and deserving term: wildlife tree.
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A red squirrel nurses her babies in the comfort of a snag hole. Cavity-raised squirrels are nearly twice as likely to survive as those raised in treetop nests.
A red squirrel nurses her babies in the comfort of a snag hole. Cavity-raised squirrels are nearly twice as likely to survive as those raised in treetop nests.
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Tree roots grow around a fallen tree, or nurse log, in Olympic National Forest, in Washington state.
Tree roots grow around a fallen tree, or nurse log, in Olympic National Forest, in Washington state.
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Numerous fauna depend on parts of a snag, better termed
Numerous fauna depend on parts of a snag, better termed "wildlife tree," from the treetop to the roots.
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For raccoons, such as these in the Gallatin National Forest in Montana, a good snag is hole heaven.
For raccoons, such as these in the Gallatin National Forest in Montana, a good snag is hole heaven.

Dead Trees

Young autumn’s shorter days and colder nights soon will do their work shutting down the chlorophyll factories in the woody landscape, and the skies will rain bright leaves. We humans will look up and watch admiringly even as we stand in our yards holding rakes in blistered hands, ever more leafy labor drifting to our feet.

Once shed of summer’s green and autumn’s multicolor, trees seem to us somber and lifeless. Nothing could be further from the truth — a leafless tree in fall and winter is near to popping with life, merely holding its vegetative breath. Nestled within its buds are thousands of miniature, fully formed infant leaves — all the foliage the tree will, at winter’s end, finally exhale in the great green gush we call spring.

That we see no life when we see no leaves is, in other words, only human foible. No tree, in fact, ever is lifeless — not even when the tree is long dead.

Life After Death

“Snag” is the traditional forestry word for a standing dead, or partially dead, tree. Recently, though, biologists have adopted a more descriptive and deserving term: wildlife tree.

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