Apparently lifeless and useless there on the ground, it harbors thousands of living things within and beneath it. Feeding on the wood of the log, living and dying, generation after generation of them, they convert it back into minerals which a fertile healthy forest soil must have. They also add the humus which not only helps the soil to hold its moisture but also aids in making the soil minerals usable as food by plants, including trees. Finally there is nothing left but crumbling punk shot through and through with the hyphae, or roots, of molds and mushrooms.
Earthworms have ferments in their saliva which convert the woody substances into sugar.
Dead and dying trees, while they stand, furnish homes for many mammals and birds such as bats, squirrels, raccoons, possums, wrens, bluebirds, woodpeckers, wood ducks and owls. They furnish food for many of these. They play a vital part in encriching the soil, keeping it fertile and maintaining the abundant variety of life to be found in our natural forest. Argonne National Laboratory, Division of Educational Programs, Harold Myron, Ph.D., Division Director.