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| Green and growing. |
And another looks dead. But ...
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| It's full of life. |
Snags can provide more habitat for wildlife than they did in their green youth. A "young" snag, like this one attracts insects, lichens, fungi, small plants like licorice ferns, spiders, and birds. Woodpeckers will feast on the grubs in the wood. As the tree ages, squirrels and assorted birds will dig out cavities for their nests; and eagles will perch on the highest branches, keeping an eye on the beaver pond below.
... “dying and dead wood provides one of the two or three greatest resources for animal species in a natural forest… if fallen timber and slightly decayed trees are removed the whole system is greatly impoverished of perhaps more than a fifth of its fauna.” (Ottawa Field Naturalists)
Wayne has two special trees he watches on the top of Goat Island from our cabin deck. They were left by the logging company years ago. They are much higher than the surrounding trees that must be 75 or more years old. Some day he wants to get up to them and look down on our cabin. - Margy
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