Chainsaws, Stag Beetles, nitrogen & Fungi.

[fairplay]

Many of you out there who own and occasionally use chainsaws, may not be aware of a campaign to encourage users to fell dead standing trees higher than normal, say, at a height between waist and below shoulder height.

This is not only easier on the back to do, but also leaves more wood available for wildlife, such as fungi and invertebrates.
One of our most remarkable beetles, the Stag Beetle lives in such habitats for up to 6 years chomping away at the wood before emerging as that wonderful beast we all should know and love.

Many fungi, such as Smokey Bracket and Turkey Tail will often begin to grow on such habitats and it is these fungi which are most important, as we all need nitrogen to survive and there is very little, if any, nitrogen in dead wood.
It is known that the beetle can 'fix' nitrogen from the atmosphere, but so little that it would take 130 years for enough to be 'fixed' for it's survival needs, so how do they obtain their nitrogen ?

Research has already taken place with Lesser Stag Beetles and it is now known that they obtain their nitrogen from chewing the minute fungal threads called mycelium.
The mycelium is the main 'body' of the fungus, the toadstool itself being only there to produce spores.
It is suspected that the Stag Beetle too, obtains it's nitrogen 'fix' in the same way, and work is currently underway looking into this.

So in the meantime, can I appeal to anybody who has a dying or dead tree in their garden and is planning to have it taken down, please do your bit to help wildlife and tell the man with the chainsaw to cut it between waist and just below his shoulder height - the creepy crawlies and the birds and fungi will love you for it.

Many thanks, Neil.

[Jason Green]

Afternoon Neil,

Have we spoken before? Well, I mean typed to... never mind

Where was I? Ah yes, sure will. In my local patch if any trees are taken down they even leave some of the wood behind in logpile fashion. If I actually see them being taken down I'll have a word.

Thanks for the post!

Take care,

Jason

[muldonach]

Actually in a forest environment I try to leave standing dead trees alone for that reason - the amount of woodpecker activity evident on them shows the amount of insect life present.

Where we do have to take standing deadwood down I am afraid it is at ground level - normally because they are in the way of a machine - and the felled timber is crosscut to approx 1m lenghts and thrown into a random logpile.

Regards
mac

[fairplay]

Hi Jason,

Yes I'm sure we have communicated before as we seem to have a lot in common.
If the owner wants to keep the felled wood to make into a log pile, then yes, so much the better.

Obviously, one thing I forgot to mention was Honey Fungus, if this killed the tree, and other trees or shrubs are nearby, then in this case unfortunately the whole stump and roots will have to be removed to prevent the infection of other plants, but people need not have any fear with other fungi that may be present - they will be feeding on the remains of the tree and will not be a threat to other plants.
In fact why not plant Ivy to grow up the stump ?
By the way, Stag Beetles seem to prefer deciduous trees to conifer trees, but any stump is worth retaining for wildlife.

Hello Mac,

A forestry environment is a different ball game, so yes access is important for machinery etc. but also I believe you have to take away as much as possible, not just for commercial reasons but also to keep Fomes (Heterobasidion annosum) under control.
But I was talking about dead standing timber in a domestic situation and leaving tall stumps in the forest wouldn't be on, but it's nice to know that where practical, you can still leave the odd dead standing tree for wildlife.

A private forest is different though to Forestry Commission land where the public now have open access and where a standing dead tree may be a liability - you could get away with this in a private environment.
Which do you work in ?

Neil.