Learning to Love — and Protect — Burned Trees. Wildfire-killed trees are some of the most important structures in a forest. So why are they still being logged?

Dead trees, known as “snags,” are some of the most valuable wildlife structures in the forest and help support hundreds of animals.

“A tree really has a second life after it’s been killed, particularly with fire-killed trees, which decay far slower than if a tree succumbs to disease or insects,” says Timothy Ingalsbee, a wildfire ecologist and executive director of the nonprofit Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “I’ve called them ‘living dead trees.’”