Tree farms aside, forests contain mixes of tree species, and not all of the trees are living. Standing dead trees, or snags, are highly useful as wildlife habitat. Scientists have known this for a long time, but HOW to best create or enhance snags has not gotten a lot of study, until now, and Oregon State University led the way.
Jim Rivers in the College of Forestryat OSU looked at Douglas fir snags, 800 in all, to figure out which method of creating or treating a snag seemed to work best. The short answer: topping the trees with a chain saw. We get a longer answer when Dr. Rivers describes the research on the JX.