There’s an old cliché about someone who 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 in 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 creation of substantial qualities of dead trees – beetles and wildfire-as “enemies” of the forest, when in truth they are the major processes that maintain healthy forest ecosystems.

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

Dead trees are very important for functioning aquatic ecosystems as well. Trees create structure in streams that shapes stream channels, reduces water velocity and erosion, and provides both food and habitat for many aquatic species, including trout.

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 and 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 flowers and flowering shrubs in the forest.

Ants are among the most abundant invertebrates in the forest, and many live in down trees and snags. Ants play a critical role in the forest by helping to break down wood, aeration of soil with their burrows, and protection of trees against the onslaught of other insects. One study found that ants killed 85 percent of the tussock moths that attacked Douglas fir, and there are many other examples of how ants protect trees from tree predators.