The value of dead trees.

AuthorWuerthner, George
PositionForest ecosystem

There's an old cliche that one can't see the forest for the trees. It is used to describe people who are so focused on some detail that they fail to see the big picture. Nowhere is this failure to see the forest for the trees more evident than the rush to utilize dead trees for biomass fuels and/or the presumed need to "thin" forests to reduce so-called "dangers" and/or "damage" from wildfire and beetle outbreaks.

Dead trees are not a "wasted" resource. An abundance of dead trees, rather than a sign of forest sickness as commonly portrayed, demonstrates that the forest ecosystem is functioning perfectly well. For far too long we have viewed the major agents responsible for the creation of substantial quantities of dead trees--beetles and wildfire--as "enemies" of the forest, when in truth they are the major processes that maintain healthy forest ecosystems.

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Recent research points out the multiple ways that dead trees and down wood are critical to the forest. One estimate suggests that two-thirds of all species depend on dead trees/down wood at some point in their lives.

Once a tree falls to the ground and gradually molders back into the soil, it provides home to many small insects and invertebrates that are the lifeblood of the forest, that help recycle and produce nutrients important for present and future forest growth. For instance, there are hundreds of species of ground-nesting bees that utilize down trees for their home. These bees are major pollinators of...

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