Wildlife Trees

Dead and decaying material provide immense benefits to a myriad of wildlife. While it may seem unimportant to provide habitat for insects, those insects may then attract woodpeckers. The woodpeckers may create a hollow cavity in the tree, which can later be used by other wildlife to nest in. Saprophytic organisms (ones that feed on decaying matter) are a critical part of nutrient transfer in any ecosystem.

Walking through a natural hardwood forest, you will see plenty of dead and decaying trees. Standing dead trees are referred to as “snags”. These trees are so critical that it is often required for a certain number of snags to be left during a timber harvest.

Controlled Snags

We can mimic this, and hopefully see some of the same benefits, in an urban setting. We often see situations where a client’s tree has snapped off in a storm, or has died and they wish to mitigate the hazard or clean up the debris. One thing we can recommend is leaving that stem, and turning it into a wildlife snag.

Woodpeckers are attracted to broken stems, a crowning cut can mimic this in an intentional way.

A crowning cut can be made to mimic the naturally attractive look of a broken stem.

Above, we are creating a chainsaw hollow in a white oak. This specific tree next to the client’s driveway and home and had died naturally. We removed the top and left this stem standing. The stem will likely continue to stand for the next 50 years.

We craft these chainsaw hollows in order to mimic the natural progression of a snag, while doing so in a controlled manner that has immediate wildlife benefits. While temperatures are a major concern over built bird boxes, carved hollows follow the thermal curves of natural cavities very closely.

These techniques allow us to save some value of a tree that would otherwise be removed. Stems can be cut to a height that wouldn’t touch anything if they were to fall. The canopy structure is the part of the tree that falls over time, with only the stem it will likely stay standing for 20-100 years. Mitigating hazard, while maximizing ecological value is our philosophy.