Tree disease and decay sustain a web of wildlife that healthy woodlots lack

Evidence

The real jewel of my disease-ridden woodlot is the prothonotary warbler. He nests in an old woodpecker hole, or other small cavity, in a dead snag overhanging water. The flash of his gold-and-blue plumage amid the dank decay of the June woods is in itself proof that dead trees are transmuted into living animals, and vice versa. When you doubt the wisdom of this arrangement, take a look at the prothonotary. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 277

Categorization

• XREF: Directly feeds the ‘Grafting & Growth’ article thread about trees as underused worldbuilding/infrastructure — here as ecological infrastructure of decay. — connects to: Fungus-weakened root systems create wildlife refuges that hunters cannot penetrate — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 267; Grouse population in a woodlot is capped by the count of summer windthrown oaks — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 268
• ADDENDUM: Direct support for the trees-as-infrastructure angle: diseased/decaying trees as keystone habitat, an inversion of the ‘healthy forest’ management default.
• QUESTION: Chasing: how does this complicate modern ‘sanitized’ forestry and park management that removes dead snags?