Removing Invasive Plants - A Satisfying (and Usually Cheap) Way to Help Increase Biodiversity

All of those "pretty" white-blooming trees are Callery Pears,
better known as "Bradford pears".
This non-native has become quite invasive in many areas of the country.
Photo taken on March 23, 2025 in Williamsburg, VA.

Even driving down the road at 55 mph, you can tell that invasive plants have become a huge problem around the country.  I've begun to suspect that they are a major factor in the declining populations of both insects and birds, since they do not, generally speaking, support the native insect species that many birds rely on for food.

Japanese Wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) that has taken over a "wild" area.
Williamsburg, VA,  April 6, 2025

A closer look at the wisteria's stems strangling the shrubs and trees it's climbing on.
This is a heavy, twining vine that kills a lot of other plants.
Williamsburg, VA, April 6, 2025

Many of our invasive species are, unfortunately, quite attractive.  In fact, they were often brought here as garden or landscape plants precisely because they were so pretty.  The Mr. Hyde portion of their Jekyll and Hyde personality showed up later as they escaped cultivation and established themselves along roadsides, in wild areas, and in many other places where they weren't wanted.  Invasive plants are aggressive spreaders and are rarely eaten by native wildlife, allowing them to outcompete the native vegetation that does support animal life.  The result is large areas of lush, even pretty, vegetation that are actually unable to support much of any wildlife at all.

The good news is that, even if you're tight on cash, you can do a surprisingly large amount of good for wildlife and biodiversity simply by ridding your yard of these invasive species.  This opens up space for native plants to grow and, with more native plants in your yard, your biodiversity will increase.   Insects will show up to munch the plants (this is a good thing!), then other insects, spiders, birds, and more animals will show up to eat the plant eaters.  By removing invasive plants, you will also be limiting their spread, at least from your own yard. 

Be forewarned, though, that invasive species won't give up easily!

Let's start with the basics.  What is an invasive plant?  For starters, by definition, an invasive plant is non-native.  This is an important point - you can have aggressive native plants that spread more widely or rapidly than you want, but native plant species are NOT invasive, ever.  The other component of having a plant declared invasive is that it spreads extensively and rapidly, pushing out native plant species and causing economic damage and environmental disruption in the areas where it's growing.

Kudzu is the poster child of an invasive plant.

In 2015, researchers found that there were 755 species of plants considered invasive in the continental United States.  Unfortunately, more are being added to the list every year as previously "well behaved" non-native plants start escaping cultivation and going crazy.  Chances are high that you have at least a couple invasive species in your yard.

A seedling of Autumn Olive (Eleagnus umbellata)
Williamsburg, VA, March 28, 2025.

A row of large Autumn Olives down the road from us.
Williamsburg, VA,  April 8, 2025

Generally speaking, the older and more well established an invasive plant is, the harder it is to remove.  So....keep your eye out for seedlings and remove them as soon as you see them.  Recently for example, I found two Autumn Olive seedlings, about 12" high.  We've had reasonable rains and they were easy to pull out, but their roots were already almost as long as their stems were high.  If I'd let them get much larger, removing them would have been difficult.  As mature shrubs, Autumn Olives are 12-18' tall and wide.  Trust me, removing seedlings is MUCH easier.

Speaking of which, in one of my Facebook native plant groups recently, there was a post by a guy who had just purchased 8.5 acres in Virginia, 7 acres of which were forested.  He said that Autumn Olive made up about 95% of the understory in those woods and he was asking how to clear it out.  That's one of many, many examples of why invasive plants are such a problem.

Besides the Autumn Olive, here are some of the invasive species that I have been removing from our yard:

This lush looking, beautiful grass is actually invasive Japanese Stiltgrass.
Williamsburg, VA,  June 12, 2024

Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum).  Japanese Stiltgrass is an annual, but it is highly invasive in our area and quickly creates a carpet that chokes out almost all other vegetation on the forest floor.  This was the first plant I really targeted with a full scale removal project.  Even though our yard was not heavily infested, on our 2/3 acre, it took about 3 years to get the majority of it pulled out,  I still have to be vigilant, since the seeds remain viable for up to 7 years and since they are easily spread by deer and other animals, but now I can pull out the Stiltgrass as I do walkabouts, without making a special concerted effort.

A small patch of Ground Ivy beginning to bloom.
Williamsburg, VA,  April 8, 2025

Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), a.k.a. Creeping Charlie.  There is a lot of ground ivy in our yard.  I originally let it go because I rather liked its scent and it didn't seem overwhelming.  Then it repaid my kindness by starting to take over.  Now I pull it whenever I'm weeding in the area.  I don't usually make a concerted effort to go after it, though.

 

An English Ivy seedling shining in the leaf litter
Williamsburg, VA,  March 17, 2025.

Note the 2 large trees with trunks infested by English ivy.
These are probably the source of many of the seedlings in our yard.
Williamsburg, VA,  April 8, 2025

English Ivy (Hedera helix).  Thankfully our yard had no large, established patches of English ivy, but it is rampant in our neighborhood, including right across the street.  I regularly see seedlings, which are easy to spot in winter and early spring, given their evergreen foliage.  Around our neighborhood, the heavily coated tree trunks are looming reminders of how important it is to pull the seedlings up right away.  Note:  English Ivy doesn't start to bloom (and thus to set seed) until it reaches up into the canopy.

  

A small seedling of Chinese Privet (Ligustrum sinense)
Williamsburg, VA,  September 19, 2023

Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense).  This generally unassuming shrub, widely used for hedges, tends to blend into the background except when it blooms in late spring.  Here in Williamsburg, Chinese privet lines the Colonial Parkway for miles, growing to 15' tall, allowing little else to grow where it has taken over.  I regularly find seedlings of this plant in our yard, which I pull as soon as I see them.  I'm quite thankful that this one hasn't established itself, since it spreads by both seed and sucker.

Seedling of Japanese Privet,
Williamsburg, VA,  March 17, 2025

The large, dark green shrubs/small trees are Japanese Privet.
This planting is also right across the street from us - and is probably our seed source.
Williamsburg, VA,  April 8, 2025

Japanese privet (Ligustrum japonicum).  There is a LOT of this large, pretty plant in our neighborhood, where it's generally used as a visual screen.  As with other invasives, this plant spreads readily and has essentially no wildlife value, despite its shining dark green leaves and generally handsome looks.  This is another species whose seedlings I find regularly - and which I pull as soon as I see them.  If you let them grow, expect to have a 15' tall and wide shrub/small tree in your yard.

Basal rosette of Asiatic False Hawksbeard
Williamsburg, VA,  March 17, 2025.

Asiatic False Hawksbeard (Youngia japonica).  There are certainly worse invasive species, but I've started trying to remove this annual/biennial as much as possible. To my eye, it's weedy looking and it has no wildlife value, so I see no point in keeping it around.  Asiatic False Hawksbeard forms a basal rosette which overwinters, sending up a tall bloom spike with small yellow flowers that quickly turn to seedy fluff.

 

Another beautiful invasive plant, this is an Ajuga bloom spike,
Williamsburg, VA,  April 4, 2025

Part of a patch of Ajuga starting to bloom.  
This area only had a couple plants 2 years ago; now it's about 12' across.
Williamsburg, VA,  April 4, 2025

.
Ajuga (Ajuga reptans), a.k.a. Bugleweed.  I remember helping my mother plant this attractive ground cover and later I planted it myself, but now I know a LOT better.  Ajuga will absolutely cover ground - and then spread widely well beyond where you want it, if you're not careful.  The first year or two we were here, I noticed a bit of Ajuga here and there, but I didn't worry about it.  Suddenly, last spring, I noticed it all over the yard, forming a couple large patches and blooming happily, getting ready to spread itself even more widely.  This spring, it's on my "got to go" list - and I just removed a large bucket full of it from one garden area.  There's lots more to go, unfortunately.

Vinca minor, looking very innocuous.
Williamsburg, VA,  April 8, 2025

Vinca minor taking over the forest floor.
Williamsburg, VA,  April 8, 2025

Vinca (Vinca minor).  This is another plant that I remember happily planting in my younger days.  It is also another plant that I noticed a few sprigs of in this yard 5 years ago, but paid no attention to.   Now we have a couple large patches of it and, like the Ajuga, it's been put on my "got to go" list.

There are many non-native plants that are not (for now) invasive, including camellias and peonies.  If these are well grown plants and I like them, for one reason or another, I let them be. Dr. Doug Tallamy urges us to aim for at least 70% native plants to support bird populations, so I don't have to be a purist.  I cherish the tall Chindo Viburnum hedge that provides privacy to our back yard and the gorgeous peony that has vivid magenta blooms and fills out so lushly each summer.  However, when these and other non-natives in our yard get unhealthy and die, I will replace them with native plants to support more wildlife.

Why a post on invasive plants now,  in the beginning of the growing season?  I find that late winter/early spring is a good time to notice many invasives in the yard and, as I plan for the coming year's plantings and transplantings, a good time to get to work on removing them.  It's rather like doing a spring clean, opening up the yard for new possibilities. 

That said, don't be too quick to dismiss a seedling plant that shows up in your yard as "just" a weed or invasive.  Try to be sure of the plant's identity before you weed it out.  I have received many "gift plants" from Mother Nature by keeping my eyes open and my PictureThis app fully deployed.  That, however, is a topic for another post.

I'm curious to learn what invasives you're finding in your yard - and whether you're having trouble removing them or not. 

The Life in Dead Wood

In my last post, Dead Wood in the Landscape, I shared the biological benefits of leaving dead wood in our gardens and landscapes.  In this post, I want to get more specific, describiing a sampling of the species that we see in our yard BECAUSE we have left dead wood where we can.

Before I start, I want to share a quote with you from Peter Wohlleben.   In The Hidden Life of Trees, The Illustrated Edition, he writes of a tree that suddenly dies, "For centuries, the tree sucked nutrients from the ground and stored them in its wood and bark.  And now it is a precious resource for its children.  But they don't have direct access to the delicacies contained in their dead parents. To access them, the youngsters need the help of other organisms.  As soon as the snapped trunk hits the ground, the tree and its root system become the site of a culinary relay race for thousands of species of fungi and insects.  Each is specialized for a particular stage of the decomposition process and for a particular part of the tree.  And this is why these species can never pose a danger to a living tree--it would be much too fresh for them.  Soft, woody fibers and moist, moldy cells--these are the things they find delicious. ... In total, a fifth of the animal and plant species in Central European forests--that's about six thousand of the species we know about--depend on dead wood." (p. 78-81)

That same general richness of species depends on dead wood all over the world.  Let's look at some of the ones I see in our yard, here in the eastern deciduous forest of North America.....

Pileated Woodpeckers could serve as the charismatic poster child for an animal that needs dead wood to have a healthy habitat.  These big, beautiful woodpeckers not only nest in dead trees, but they obtain a large portion of their food in dead wood.  Their diet is primarily made up of carpenter ants, along with wood-boring beetle larvae, termites, assorted other insects, and sometimes fruits and nuts.

Pileated Woodpecker foraging on downed wood along the paths
April 26, 2023

Although Pileated Woodpeckers are fairly wary, it is not unusual for us to see them foraging on the dead wood in our yard.  Getting decent photos can be a lot trickier, though, than simply seeing them!

Other woodpeckers use dead wood, too.  Downy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, and Northern Flickers all nest in dead wood, sometimes in dead branches in living trees.  Several of these species will also nest in living trees that are infected with heart rot fungus.

Every summer we see juvenile Red-bellied Woodpeckers, 
which means that their parents were able to build a successful nest
in dead wood somewhere nearby.
June 5, 2022

Mom is feeding her daughter (on the left).
We see juvenile Downy Woodpeckers every year 
because they've been able to successfully build their nest
in a large dead branch nearby.
May 22, 2022

One year we even had this beautiful adult Red-headed Woodpecker stop by,
another species that nests in dead wood.
June 20, 2022

Woodpecker nest holes are frequently reused as nest sites by other cavity nesting birds such as Bluebirds, Great-crested flycatchers, Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Screech Owls, White-breasted Nuthatches, Wrens, Swallows, and even Wood Ducks.  During cold weather, woodpecker nests are often used as roosting sites for protection from the temperatures.

Birds aren't the only animals that reuse woodpecker nest holes. Squirrels, Flying Squirrels, even some species of bats will use these valuable spaces for nesting or winter shelter.

Skinks love to use the logs in our yard as basking sites and as pathways. As I shared in my last post, one pair nested in the rotting roots of the dead black gum tree.

An immature and a mature male Broad-headed Skink
using logs as a basking site and pathway.
May 18, 2023

I haven't found any in our yard yet, but many salamander species are found under or in rotting wood, too.

Many, many insect species spend at least part of their life cycle in dead wood.  (Note:  these insects use dead wood, not living wood, as the fibers are softer and decomposition is already occurring in the dead wood.)

Many beetle species lay their eggs in snags, logs, or dead branches and their larvae eat the decaying wood, then pupate there, all safely protected from prying eyes.  Protected from prying eyes...but not from woodpecker bills and tongues!  Beetle larvae are prime woodpecker food, and the woodpeckers help keep the beetle populations balanced and under control.

Last year I noticed a big jump in beetles feeding at and pollinating flowers in our yard.  It turns out that most of the new species I saw have larval stages that develop in dead wood.  One of my favorites is the uniquely marked Delta Flower Scarab (Trigonopeltastes delta).  I also saw Tumbling Flower Beetles (Mordella sp.) and Emerald Flower Scarabs (Trichiotinus lunulatus).

A Delta Flower Scarab on Meadowsweet (Spiraea alba)
June 11, 2024

An Emerald Flower Scarab and a Tumbling Flower Beetle
on Meadowsweet (Spiraea alba)
June 8, 2024

There are several species of flower longhorn beetles that showed up last year, too, all of whom spend their larval stage in dead wood:  Slender Flower Longhorns ((Strangalia famelica), Red-winged Longhorn Beetles (Brachyleptura rubrica), and Red-shouldered Flower Longhorns (Brachyleptura vagans).

Slender Flower Longhorn on Meadowsweet (Spiraea alba)
June 5, 2024

Red-winged Longhorn Beetle on Meadowsweet (Spiraea alba)
June 5, 2024

Red-shouldered Flower Longhorn on Meadowsweet (Spiraea alba)
June 11, 2024

The larvae of these species are some of insects that woodpeckers and other animals are eating when they feed on snags or logs.

It's not just woodpeckers that prey on beetle grubs, though.  There are other beetle species whose larvae are predators on the wood-boring beetle larvae.  An example of a beetle species with predatory larvae is the Eyed Click Beetle (Alaus oculatus).   

Eyed Click Beetle, whose larvae are predators on the larvae of wood-boring beetles
July 14, 2020

There are also parasitoid wasps that specialize in using the wood-boring beetle larvae as hosts for their developing larvae, including the species pictured below which specializes in laying its eggs in longhorn beetle larvae.  That long ovipositor is designed to pierce decaying wood to reach the beetle larva and lay an egg on it.

An Ichneumon Wasp (Spilopteron occiputale) that lays its eggs
in the larvae of longhorn beetle larvae.
July 2, 2024

Then there are yet other beetles whose larvae develop in dead wood, beetles like False Mealworm Beetles (Alobates pensylvanicus) who are predatory on other insects, or like Horned Passalus Beetles (Odontotaenius disjunctus), who live in small colonies in dead wood and whose adults feed their larvae pre-chewed rotting wood.

False Mealworm Beetle that was living under the bark
in the dead black gum trunk.
August 11, 2023

Horned Passalus Beetle, a species that lives in colonies in dead wood.
June 30, 2022

About 30% of the solitary native bees nest in places like stems or in beetle larvae tunnels in dead wood.  Pure Green Sweat Bees (Augochlora pura) are one of the species that I see in the yard that use beetle galleries in dead wood for their nests and whose fertilized females overwinter under logs.  Seeing these jewel-like pollinators gives me a real lift. 

Pure Green Sweat Bee on Wrinkle-leaf Goldenrod (Solidago rugosa)
October 13, 2023

Eastern Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa virginica), who are fabulous pollinators, excavate their own tunnels in dead wood to use as nest sites.  It's disconcerting to have Eastern Carpenter Bees use a railing or the eave of a house, but they naturally use dead wood in the landscape for their tunnels.  Keeping your wood surfaces well painted can encourage these guys to nest elsewhere.

Eastern Carpenter Bee on
Hairy Elephant's Foot (Elephantopus tomentosus)
August 20, 2023

I really dislike disturbing animals, so I haven't actually broken into or looked under the dead wood, standing or downed, to see what animals I can find by direct observation.  Someday I may.  Meanwhile, throughout the year, I'm enjoying the various species that I see specifically because we have logs and snags in our yard.

I've talked about some of the animals we see in our yard because of dead wood, but there are many fungi, mosses, and lichens we see for the same reason and it's been fascinating to see how many there actually are.  I know little about fungi, so I can't identify most of these, but I still enjoy looking at them.  Learning more about them is definitely on my "to do" list.

The first photo is of a slime mold rather than a fungus.  Slime molds are unique, with some characteristics of fungi and some characteristics, believe it or not, of animals.  I've only seen these "chocolate pom-poms" once, on a decaying stump, but when I looked them up, they are a well known species called Chocolate Tube Slime Mold (Stemonitis splendens).  Although some slime molds can look gross, they are decomposers and are not dangerous.  They disappear when environmental conditions change.

These "chocolate pom-poms" are actually Chocolate Tube Slime Mold
June 19, 2023

On that same stump, about 10 months before the Chocolate Tube Slime Mold appeared, I found a fungus known as Black-staining Polypore (Meripilus sumstinei).  This cluster was young, and I find it very elegant looking, especially from the side.  This species is considered edible, but I'm not good enough at identification to take a chance on eating it.

Black-staining Polypore
August 21, 2022

The same clump of mushrooms, Black-staining Polypore,
photographed from the top.
August 21, 2022

I have no idea what species this fungus is, but I love the lacy texture. Note the bit of lichen at its base.

Unknown lacy fungus with lichen at its base,
found on a dead hardwood branch.
August 8, 2024

To myself, I call the round clusters of fungal structures that are found in the next photo, "fungal roses".  That is, you understand, a totally unscientific name but they remind me of the paper flowers that I used to make when I wanted a pop of color on a table or bookcase. As with the fungus above, I do not know the name of this species.

"Fungal rose" on log
May 29, 2023

I'm including this last photo as much for the moss as for the fungus.  This is another fungus for which I do not know the name, nor do I know the name of the moss, but they both were growing on the same stump where I found the Chocolate Tube Slime Mold and the Black-staining Polypore cluster.  Moss and lichen are both frequently found on dead wood.

"Prickly fungus" in a bed of moss
on a stump by our driveway.
October 25, 2023

When we remove dead wood from the landscape, we are effectively starving the ecosystem.

Why do we instinctively feel that dead wood needs to be removed? Well, probably at least in part because it's "dead" and we generally don't like to be reminded of death as a part of life.  In our phobia about death, we've trained ourselves to think that any dead plant material is "ugly" - and ugly things need to be removed from our surroundings. 

However, dead wood isn't ugly, and it's chock full of nutrients that will feed a broad range of other life forms, including other trees.  Scientists have learned that even dead limbs shed by trees actually decompose into extra food that ends up feeding the tree from which they fell.  If the tree is stressed, shedding limbs can reduce the amount of living tissue it has to support during the stressful time as well as give it that boost of energy and nutrition as the dead wood decomposes.

In Victorian times, "stumperies" became popular in gardens - think of a rock garden, but using stumps and dead wood instead of rocks. Stumperies are making a comeback in some gardens and can be very attractively planted, benefitting both human aesthetic sensibilities and ecological needs.

In whatever way works for your garden aesthetic, I hope that you'll seriously consider adding a snag or some logs to your garden.  In doing so, you'll be adding important habitat for a wide variety of species.

Dead Wood in the Landscape

A dead tree is just dead, right?  It must be time to get rid of it so that the woodland can stay healthy, right?

WRONG!  Dead trees, whether standing (called snags) or fallen (called downed wood or logs), are vitally important to woodland health and to biodiversity.  In fact, scientists believe that dead wood harbors more life than living wood does.  Dead wood is critical to the health of a forest, feeding the soil and a myriad of plants and animals.

How can that be true?  It's DEAD!  It seems counterintuitive, doesn't it?  Well, stop and think about it for a moment.....

As we all know, trees capture energy from the sun to make sugar, but they also pull up nutrients from deep within the soil, with the important help of extensive mycorrhizal networks.  All of these nutrients and energy are stored within the leaves and wood of the tree.  When the tree dies, that nutrition doesn't just disappear, it becomes a vital resource for other plants and for animals within the forest.

A slug inside a shelf fungus on a dead log.  The green
areas are lichen and, if you look closely, you can see
tiny holes where some animal has bored into the dead wood.
May 6, 2024

In fact, many, many species utilize dead wood for some or all of their life cycle.  Dead wood is full of organisms decomposing it and, in the process, working to extract the nutrition stored in it.  Fungi, lichens, mosses, microbes, beetle larvae, ants, termites, and more - all feeding on the nutrients in the dead wood and breaking it down in the process.

All of the decomposers then become food for other animals.  These animals, like woodpeckers and other birds, beetle larvae, centipedes, and parasitic wasps, find a cornucopia of food as they feed on the organisms that are feeding on the dead wood.

This Pileated Woodpecker spent over an hour foraging
on logs around our yard.  
April 26, 2023

A pair of Broad-headed Skinks took up housekeeping
in the decaying roots of the dead black gum tree.
May 16, 2023

Dead wood also forms important structural habitat for animals:  woodpeckers make their nest holes, then other animals utilize the nest holes when the woodpeckers move out.  Flying squirrels, screech owls, and raccoons all utilize cavities in trees as their home.  Little solitary bees utilize the old tunnels of wood-boring larvae and carpenter bees excavate  their own new tunnels in the dead wood.  In these tunnels, the bees lay their eggs, provisioned with nectar and pollen for the growth of their developing larvae.  Hollow trees are biodiversity central, harboring massive numbers of species.  Dead branches serve as perches from which flycatchers and bluebirds and hawks hunt.  

A squirrel sat on this stump, eating hickory nuts,
as evidenced by the debris left behind.
September 15, 2023

Even logs are often used as displaying and basking sites, as well as for protection during cold weather or drought.

As the dead wood decomposes, it forms humus in the soil which both feeds the soil and helps the soil to absorb and retain water, providing protection from drought conditions.

From the bottom left to the top right, there WAS a log, about 6" in diameter.
Within 3 years, it had decomposed to this soft woody "dust".
August 29, 2024

Downed wood will slow the flow of water off a landscape, helping rain be absorbed into the soil, decreasing floods and increasing groundwater storage, helping to keep the soil moist for the plants and animals living in it.

Last, but hardly least, one of the most undervalued benefits that trees provide is that they are important "carbon sinks", utilizing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and storing the carbon in their wood and leaves as they grow.  That carbon stays in the wood after the tree dies and, as the wood decomposes slowly, much of it will become held as organic material in the soil for even longer.  Soil can hold a tremendous amount of carbon and I've seen estimates that a full third of the carbon that we need to remove from the atmosphere to solve the climate crisis could be stored in soils in the form of humus or organic material.

How much carbon does a tree store?  Dry wood is about 45-50% carbon, depending on the species of tree.  One unit of carbon (a pound, for example), if completely converted to carbon dioxide, will produce 3.67 units (pounds, in our example) of carbon dioxide.  So, to estimate, one pound of dry wood is storing 1.8 pounds of carbon dioxide in its tissues.

So, do we have dead wood in our yard?  Absolutely.

This is the remnant trunk of the dead black gum tree,
cut off about 20' above the ground.
Note the living Pileated Woodpecker below
the iron silhouette of a pileated above.
April 26, 2023

About a year after we moved in, I had our trees trimmed for safety purposes.   I asked the arborist's crew to leave larger branches for me, which they very kindly did.  Our yard also contained a dead black gum tree.  It was tall enough that it could do some damage if it fell in the wrong direction, so I had the crew cut it off about 20' above the ground, leaving the lower part of the trunk standing for woodpeckers and other animals to use.  

With the truncated, dead black gum trunk rising behind one grandson,
both play on the newly cut trunk sections we left.
January 26, 2022

Then, instead of having the arborist's crew haul off all the rest of the wood, I had them cut the trunk into logs and used as many of those logs around the yard as I could:  as an end table between 2 Adirondack chairs, as an obstacle course for the grandsons to play on, as occasional places for me to sit during a walkabout, as a decorative element in a flower bed.  I also had them leave a 20' section of the upper trunk as a landscape feature just to let it rot in place.

A trail, lined with downed branches, 
that leads out into the wild area of the front yard.
June 1, 2024

Another section of trail lined with downed branches.
In this photo, you can see the remaining stump
from the dead black gum tree that I talk about below.
June 1, 2024

The larger branches that the arborist's crew trimmed off were cut into sections that I used to start outlining garden beds and paths.

Two years after the dead black gum trunk was cut back and left standing, it did fall, due to rot in its roots and in the base of the tree.  Because I'd had the trunk cut back to 20' tall, it did no damage...although it was a little inconvenient since it landed in our driveway.  We pushed it out of the way so that we could use the driveway, then got a crew to take much of it away.  On 2/3 acre, there's unfortunately only so much dead wood that I can comfortably keep.  

"After the fall". We were able to roll the log section off the driveway
until we could hire someone to cut and remove the wood.
August 11, 2023

A closer look at the remaining stump and hollowed out lower trunk
of the dead black gum tree.
August 11, 2023

I did keep the stump and a broken 3' section that was partially rotted away.

Not long after the truncated and dead black gum tree fell, we decided that we had to take down a large, beautiful southern red oak tree that was leaning too strongly towards the neighbor's house.  It was right beside the driveway and there was/is rot in it from where the driveway has impinged upon it.  I really hated having to make that decision, but I couldn't have lived with myself if the tree had fallen on my neighbor's home, so it had to come down.  Before the tree crew came, I measured how far it was to the nearby electric pole and, instead of cutting the tree down completely, I had it topped at 20' as we'd done with the dead black gum.

I have no photo of that tree because it's still too painful that we felt we had to cut it down.

If I were an artist, I'd try to carve a face into the remaining trunk of the red oak.   Since I'm not, I simply mounted 2 iron silhouettes on it:  an owl and a pileated woodpecker.  I suspect that the trunk will be there for a long time, slowly decomposing and feeding untold animals as it does.

In How to Love a Forest, forester Ethan Tapper wrote, "In a world in which a dead tree may contain four times the biomass that it held in life, I will watch the aspen's humming cavities, wondering what it means for a tree to be alive." (p. 89)

I am continually amazed at how much life is harbored in dead wood.  Since this post is lengthy enough already, I'll stop here, but in my next post I'm going to share some of the species that we're seeing in our yard BECAUSE we have left the dead wood whenever we can.  I hope you'll consider leaving some of the dead wood in your yard or garden, too.