Why you should have snags on your land

Snags support so much wildlife that they could even be considered more alive than a living tree. Well at least in terms of the amount of living biomass that they support!

If you don’t know a snag is a dead tree that is still standing and hasn’t fallen over yet. Often people cut these down but let’s look at why you might want to leave them standing.

This week’s blog post—Why Snags are Awesome and How to Get Started—dives into snags and their role on the land.

If you want to work with nature then you should consider leaving snags on your land.

What Snags Do



What happens when a tree dies is that insects like wood-boring beetles (most aren’t dangerous to living trees) and other insects move in and start making little tunnels in the dead wood.

Overtime other critters like mason bees and other native bees move into these tunnels. And woodpeckers start making larger holes.

As water gets in these holes and fungi move in the holes steadily get bigger. As this happens songbirds and other small critters move in and eventually the holes get big enough in large snags to support owls and other similar sized critters.

The result of all of this is that despite being dead snags are filled with life.

Role of Small Snags on Your Land



Keeping snags on your land means that your land will support far more wildlife than it would without them.

Make sure to check out the blog post for more information about how to keep snags safely on your land.

And if you don’t have snags on your land you can install them! I’ve done this a ton on my own land. The blog post discusses this option but at the end of the day it really is as simple as digging a hole and sticking in a log (fresh or rotten) just like you would a fence post.

Just use soil to pack it in—no gravel or cement. You want the snag to rot overtime.

So what role do these small snags have on the land?

Well for one birds love to perch on them and I often see various small wildlife using them. But there is another role that these small snags have that can help support your fruit trees and other flowering plants.

That is the role of providing nesting habitat for native bees like mason bees!

If you install old rotten logs as snags then these will already have lots of little holes and cracks for native bees to use as nesting spots.

But for fresh logs you can just drill holes into them. Just like you would if you were making a mason bee box.

The advantage is that if you do this on lots of different snags you spread out the habitat across your landscape. This setup is more resilient to diseases and predators than a small number of mason bee boxes.

I’ve sat and watched various native bees visiting my snags going in and out of these holes. It’s really great to be able to support these native pollinators in such a simple way. Plus your also supporting lots of other wildlife at the same time!

Snags really are awesome. So please make sure to check out the blog post to learn more and while over there grab a free guide I made that walks you through the steps to use a snag to create nesting habitat for native bees.

And make sure to leave a comment sharing your thoughts about snags! While you are over on the blog most make sure to leave a comment! If you are the first to do so you will get a piece of pie! The pie will get you access to some special features on perimes, discounts at some vendors, and you ca`n use it to purchase some products on the permies digital marketplace.

If you leave a comment on the blog post make sure to leave a post here on permies too so I can easily give you the slice of pie.

I commented over there! I wasn't the first but just wanted to say how much I appreciated the quick lesson. So helpful for me as we look for our future homestead.

Laura Swain wrote:I commented over there! I wasn't the first but just wanted to say how much I appreciated the quick lesson. So helpful for me as we look for our future homestead.

Thanks Laura! I'm glad you found it helpful. I've really loved seeing all the native bees that are using my snags. And just today there was a bunch of gold finches and later red wing blackbirds hanging out on the snags I put in. I honestly think snags along with wood debris, rock piles, etc. makes the wildlife feel more comfortable on my land--it makes it feel more natural to me and I don't see why it wouldn't be the same for wildlife too!

Thanks again!

yep I make sure to leave enough snags of varied ages on my land

Devin Lavign wrote:yep I make sure to leave enough snags of varied ages on my land

Great to hear! What sort of wildlife have you seen using them?

Daron Williams wrote:

Devin Lavign wrote:yep I make sure to leave enough snags of varied ages on my land

Great to hear! What sort of wildlife have you seen using them?

Lots of birds and bees. Ants, beetles, and flying squirrels.

I have some snags and some logs and stumps from when we had some pines and sweetgums taken down. I put one large-diameter slice of pine turned flat to serve as raised planter stand at a fence corner. This was from a huge dead pine we had felled in June, and the log itself is riddled with pine beetle holes.

So I had this very strange experience. I was digging a few shallow holes beside this pine slice to plant something in. I started hearing things as I dug. I'd stop to try to figure out where the sound was coming from, and the sound would stop. Dig again, sound back; stop, gone! Several more times, same thing. I seriously thought I was hallucinating.

At the time, I was reading Buhner's Sacred Plant Medicine, so I thought maybe some plant was trying to talk to me. I soft-focused to see if I could determine "who" it was, and I felt drawn to the wooden shovel handle. I put the shovel in the ground, put my ear to it, and it was just ringing with a sound like a hive of bees... quite perturbed bees.

I looked all around the pine slice, still thickly covered in bark, and I could see no signs of any insects. Could there be a hive in the ground under that pine slice? Or maybe some kind of solitary bees? But it was more than one bee, I know. And I see no signs of anything flying around there.

It was very, very weird.

We used to have a large snag, which seemed to be a favorite hang out spot for all kinds of birds of prey.

I've noticed that we don't have as many of them around recently since it fell.

I have many dead trees still standing.  One, in plain view of our back yard, is a favorite spot for a pileated woodpecker and all of its kids.  What a sound!  I had no idea you could identify a woodpecker by the sound of the pecking, but since these are huge compared to a downy or hairy, the sound is quite different.

Our snags attract piliated woodpeckers.  Had a pair nest and raise a clutch last year.

Heard a woodpecker tapping the other day, looked to the nearest snag, and there it was.

That is another reason to have snags, you know where to look.

I had a micro-burst hit a segment of woods near my home and I've been observing the changes over the last two years. From woodpeckers to a diversity of fungi, it is incredible to observe how the dead wood changes. Not only that, but the changes to the forest itself from the canopy opening is wonderful. With some selective pruning of plants, I'm eager to see some oaks start to take over the place of broken maples.

I have some dutch elms coming up but it is about to hit 35c another week so have gone around pruning and cutting down the dead ones.. The problem is the fire hazard is now my compost heap.. How do you deal with raging inferno possibilities? At one point 3 years ago we were surrounded by fire so much that I even had to get out the TV to see from the local channels if the fire was coming this way and it was snowing cinders all over the place.

When I first purchased my property 20ishs year ago there were some larger elms that died within the first few years and my father would come and get some firewood. While cutting one of these elms down, a flying squirrel exited from somewhere near the top, glided down and was not seen again. when the tree fell it had the largest grubs of some sort I've ever seen. At first I thought they were baby flying squirrels.

I felt pretty bad about this for awhile. I've left any dead tree that did not NEED to come down for a purpose since. I figure they are just as important as anything else. And I have a little less work to do.

Fire is a whole other concern. Not one I would want to have to worry about for sure.

I appreciate this topic being discussed.

In the context of harvesting firewood for heating, I've heard various people talk about selectively cutting out dead (but still fairly sound) trees either
-because they're partly dry already or
-because of the notion that it somehow hurts the forest less than killing and removing live trees
Assuming you work ahead enough, the issue of moisture doesn't matter that much. But I've wondered about the latter concern. I know that dead trees (both standing and downed) are important habitat and food sources, so it's important to have some around from a biodiversity perspective. For me that is reason enough to not take them out, but I am curious: does it also end up making the forest more productive from a human perspective?

Any foresters out there who can comment on best practices for harvesting trees? Is it always better for forest health to take exclusively live trees, or is a mix of live and dead sometimes okay or even preferable? What about the idea of preferentially removing "diseased" trees? After all, these are going to be snags soon enough....

Andre Wiederkehr wrote:
Any foresters out there who can comment on best practices for harvesting trees? Is it always better for forest health to take exclusively live trees, or is a mix of live and dead sometimes okay or even preferable? What about the idea of preferentially removing "diseased" trees? After all, these are going to be snags soon enough....

This is of interest to me, too. A local forester advised thinning until the trees are 8-10' apart. He suggested keeping the higher timber value trees (cedar instead of pine for example) but did not talk about leaving any standing dead trees. This was a while ago when there were not as many snags.

Now we have an abundance of standing dead Grand Fir trees after a few dry years plus some insect damage. One concern with an 80' tall dead tree is safety. On a windy day it (or just the top of it) might come down at any moment. We also get a few across the drive every winter due to the snow load or soft ground when it thaws. The ones near the drive are at the top of the priority list for removal, especially the Birch which rot from the top and are notorious for dropping widow-makers on the unsuspecting tree cutter. I also remove any which might fall on the house, garden or barn. There are still plenty for wildlife habitat

There are many ways to deal with bushfires.
Sometimes preparation bt razing everything is wrong.
In Australia we get the same advise, but some use things differently.
- auto sprinklers
- heat absorbing plants
= emberproof fly screens
- no wooden decks etc
- no wood stacks or LPG bottles near the house.
= fire shelters

For me that is reason enough to not take them out, but I am curious: does it also end up making the forest more productive from a human perspective?

I'm just going to say that it must. If biodiversity is good it's good for all of it. Forest management is a different issue to me.

Any foresters out there who can comment on best practices for harvesting trees? Is it always better for forest health to take exclusively live trees, or is a mix of live and dead sometimes okay or even preferable? What about the idea of preferentially removing "diseased" trees? After all, these are going to be snags soon enough....

I'm interested in this for sure. I don't know what it's like nowadays but when my father was in forestry it was all about farming trees. Same as commercially farming anything else more or less. I think a "natural" forest is quite different from what happened in forestry circles back then. That was a long time ago and I know alot has been learned but I feel like the main goal probably remains the same.

I hope I'm wrong. I would love to hear from foresters that biodiversity pays and we all know it now.

Direct answer to the question is "Yes" but as with many things, it depends. Snags can be important but like the rest of the forest they have to be managed. First they are dangerous and you don't want one around any structure or something that can be damaged when it inevitably falls. You obviously don't want one that will fall across your road and of course not on you or anyone else. They will very seriously kill you for a long period of time. They are fire tinder. But they add character and habitat. Even after they fall they still make an excellent home for our creatures.

We have multiple contiguous parcels of forest in the PNW and the area is a prime wildfire risk. After the last 10+ years of reduced rain there is an increase of drought stressed trees (mostly the native ponderosa pine but also some douglas fir) that are then bug magnets soon to become the next snag. Our land is in an active forest production plan and having some snags is part of it. But too many of them is counterproductive. In some areas where the owners don't manage their land it is a depressing sight. But those places increase our risk too.

Tree species, soil types, contour, elevation, weather patterns, wildlife and overall forest health is why it is wise to get a professional involved. Then you can carry on from there if you are so inclined or have a problem that demands an expert. Those trees are quite valuable.

Thank you so much for bringing attention to this. Snags are the best! The goats also love the low ones that get really bushy. I have also used them to stuff natural sponges or random mulch or who knows what into and grow seeds. All sorts of wild stuff happens in them, and the mulch when they fall over is great. I once used a massive pine snag as a seat/table. Recently a friend carved a garden seat into a pretty solid snag. Then the chickens foraged the bugs that grew in it. Fun fun things that are so often overlooked. Thank you for the details and suggestions!