Leave your dead trees standing

March 2, 5:57 PMSF Wildlife ExaminerChris McLaughlin

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Foxes may set up house in a snag (picture by mandj98)

To all my Bay Area people – don’t cut down your dead trees! If you think there’s no life left in your decomposing wood, you’re dead wrong. Snags provide wildlife habitats.

Their woody lives are not over yet. When there’s no sign of green left in a tree, it graduates to a “snag” and takes on a new ecological role.

Snags provide homes, food and nesting places for all kinds of local wildlife. As a standing snag, it provides a hunting look-out for birds-of-prey such as owls and hawks and a place for song birds to sit and sing.

In fact, 85 species of birds call snags home. There’s also plenty of room for squirrels, raccoons, deer mice, bats, butterflies and reptiles.

Woodpeckers find the soft, decaying wood of a snag easy to excavate while finding food and making a nest to raise little woodpeckers. As a fallen, decomposing log, a snag will entice foxes, skunks, bobcats and opossums to set up home.

If a dead or dying tree needs to be taken down because it poses a threat to a home or is a potential danger for any other reason, consider moving the snag to another location and sinking it two feet into the ground or placing it on its side in a more convenient location.  

I you'd like to know about certifying your yard with the National Wildlife Federation, check out Certify your yard as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat.