Importance of woodpiles in your back yard wildlife habitat efforts

The thought of have piles of rotting logs in the garden isn’t a
particularly appealing one, but for the wildlife gardener a small bank
of logs can be an invaluable source of insect life, a safe harbour for
small mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and a sanctuary for
over-wintering and hibernating wildlife. Once the wood starts to decay
it becomes a veritable engine room of life, perfectly evolved for
supporting, specialised fungal, insect species and the larger
predators that feed of them such as our native bats, reptiles and
insect eating birds.

In Britain, some 900 species of invertebrates
live in or on dead wood alone, with different species of trees
supporting a unique range of insects at each stage of its decay. There
is a typical pattern of decay with dead wood which is largely the
result of its colonization by other organisms such as wood-boring
beetles, fungi, and bark beetles. These in turn attract predators and
parasites including spiders, false scorpions, and specialist wasps
which open up the wood to allowing more fungi to enter. Hoverflies,
millipedes and mites are associated with the mid-stage of decay, and
in the later stages the wood may even be used by small mammals. Within
the wildlife garden it’s the temporary visitors to the log piles that
are perhaps the most important to us. With suburban gardens isolated
from the majority of natural woodland and forest we are unable to
attract many of the species that would ordinarily take on the role of
breaking down our old wood. However these woody sanctuaries are vital
for the various developmental stages of many garden insect larvae as
well as creating a safe environment away from predators which would
otherwide feed on our native reptiles and amphibians and mammals. You
could be performing a valuable service in protecting species such as
our common lizard, the common frog, the common toad, slow worms, grass
snakes and hedgehogs – many of which are in decline. On freshly
harvested wood, fresh wounds and seepages (sap plus rainwater) also be
providing valuable feeding sites for hoverflies, hornets and
butterflies. http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.com/2008/12/importance-of-log-piles-to-native.html

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