Wildlife Viewing - In Your Own Backyard - There's Life in Dead Trees

In Your Backyard

There's Life in Dead Trees

Many species of wildlife are cavity dwellers, and competition for those spaces, whether in living or dead trees, can be fierce. Most cavities are in dead or partly dead trees. Nearly one-third of all wildlife species depend on these trees for homes and food.

A dead tree, called a snag, can remain standing for years. During this time, its rotting wood provides a lavish food source for insects, which in turn feed woodpeckers and many other birds. Hawks and ospreys use exposed dead limbs for hunting and roosting perches. Scarlet king snakes, southern fence lizards and gray squirrels find shady niches in loose bark.

The dead wood of snags is critical for cavity nesters such as woopeckers, titmice, kestrels, chickadees, wood ducks, screech owls and bluebirds, as well as flying squirrels, raccoons and opossums.

If a tree dies in your yard, consider leaving it. If it poses a threat to your home, lop off the top and, and if practical and safe, leave a 15-foot snag for wildlife. Retain and use fallen trees and stumps in landscaping. And where snags are scarce, provide nest boxes for types of birds that inhabit your ecosystem..