Planting Dead Trees

In my attempt to catch up on posting, here is what I was doing some time in March:

If my imagined battles with Hydra-like rose bushes and honeysuckles were not enough to make one question my sanity, perhaps the fact that I was planting dead trees might. (By the way, the battles were real, just the enemies' form was imagined.)

Now, why would I be planting dead trees?

(Yes, I knew they were dead while I was doing it.)

Several reasons: One a dead tree is called a snag (while it is still standing) and it provides food (in the form of insects in the dead wood), a place to perch with no obstructed view from leaves, and in some cases, a cavity in which to nest.

Now the trees I was attempting to upright were old sumacs that had been standing until this winter. They provided structure; their trunks giving the feel of a woodland that is rather sparse in the way of trees. Their diameter is too small to be much good for cavities--and I've seen no holes as of yet, but they did provide perching and aside from that, the look I was going for as I wait for the seedlings I've added to grow and take their place as much needed vertical structure for our woodland.