Book 4, Question 25
Why Do Forests Need Dead Logs?
A fallen log is not trash. It is a slow-release pantry, a sponge, and an apartment building for fungi, bugs, moss, and new seedlings. A dead log is full of life.
From the book
Page from A Million Whys Book 4
More fun facts
- Dead wood includes standing dead trees, called snags, and fallen logs and branches.
- Rotting logs are recycled into new life in the forest.
- Insect grubs hibernate deep inside rotting logs, and black bears dig them out as a snack.
- Without fungi that rot wood, forests would be covered with the remains of dead trees.
- When the first big forests grew 350 million years ago, fungi had not yet learned to break down logs.
- One scientist has studied more than 500 logs for 40 years to see how bugs, fungi and microbes break them down.
Sources: Oregonstate, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, National Geographic
Questions kids ask
Why leave dead logs in a forest?
They feed fungi and bugs, shelter animals, and slowly turn back into soil for new plants.