• Trees are used by wild animals much more when the trees are sick, dead, or downed than when alive and healthy.
• Snags are an important part of many animals' habitat.
• Animals use snags for nesting, denning, roosting, perching, feeding, storing food, making noise, shelter, protection...
• Snags are an important part of a forest.
• Make sure a snag isn't a wildlife tree before deciding to take it for firewood.
• Be quiet, still, and observant to increase the chance you'll see animals or their sign.

• Sally/Sammy Snag in a suitcase that also contains: puppets, rulers to tape together for branch (if needed), notebook, books to read aloud if you have time (The Dead Tree, Animals That Live in Trees).
• Yardstick or 36" tight roll of plotter paper to hold limb up.
• Block of wood and pencil for woodpecker taps.
• Woodpecker wood chips.
• Cassette tape of pileated woodpecker calls.
• Other show-me items, such as taxidermy mounts of woodpeckers, squirrels, cavity-nesting birds, etc. Pieces of wood with sign of bark beetles, carpenter ants, woodpecker sign, soft rotten wood, fungal conks. Live or dead specimens of bark beetles, carpenter ants, etc.

• Place tent poles so they are under the x's on the fabric and stuck into the leather pockets.
• Place hula hoop pieces together into 2 "C" shapes, putting the blue hoop in the slot marked "blue" on the fabric and the purple hoop in the "purple" fabric slot. Connect hoop ends.
• Pull treebark fabric around hoops so that the tree will stand after the velcro is attached.
• Push all of the leather feet outward to make snag more stable.
• Place rolled paper or yardstick inside the limb so that one end is firmly in the small pocket in the armpit of the limb and the other end is in the small pocket inside the top of the far end of the limb.
• Hide pileated woodpecker, large bluebird, fox, and wildlife tree sign in reach of speaker.
• Make sure list of animals is attached to inside to help puppeteer plan ahead.
• Place the other puppets in the elastic loops inside snag, ready for use. It helps to have them in order. If you ran out of loops, the puppets to be used first can be at your feet. After done with each one, it is handed over to the speaker in a way that makes it look like it is flying, crawling, or jumping away.

I'm here to teach you about how important a snag is. A snag? Who knows what a snag is? How could a dead tree, or "snag", be important? Lots of animals use dead trees for lots of different things. I think you'll be surprised.

First imagine that you are on a long car trip with your family. You've been driving all day, it's rainy and cold, and you want to stop. You want a place to rest, to eat, be safe, be out of the weather. Where might you go? (Motel, relative's house, your tent...). Now imagine that you are an animal looking for those same things. A dead tree can be all those things for you.

Now imagine that I am a dead tree, and I'll tell you my story. I bet you already know the beginning part. I started as a tiny seed--first roots, a couple of leaves on a stem, branches, bigger stem until it was a trunk, more and more branches, until I was the biggest tree in the forest. I loved watching squirrels chase around my roots and having birds perch on my high branches. I stood so long that, after many, many years, I grew older and older and started to get weak and rather sick. One night a huge storm came over me. I'd seen lots of storms, but nothing like this one. The wind blew and I swayed and bent. Then CRACK!! A bolt of lightning blew my top off. As I died I was very sad, because I thought I was going to be very lonely. I was sure that the animals wouldn't want to use me anymore.

But I was wrong! I had more friends than ever before. Would you like to meet some of my friends and learn about how they use me? Here comes one now!

Have someone turn tape player on with woodpecker calls. Fly PILEATED WOODPECKER over to snag. Land and investigate. Start pecking. Person inside taps pencil on wooden block with the pecking. Eat insects from bark. Drill hole. Person inside can drop wood chips through hole onto floor. Have woodpecker climb into snag (large hole). Person inside sticks bird head out and pecks around (and kids go nuts if they didn't know somebody is in there). How is this woodpecker going to use me, the snag? (Food, nest, resonant chamber for tapping). Hand pileated over to speaker who flies it to hidden spot "offstage".

SQUIRREL sticks head out of limb. Hide and den in cavities made by woodpeckers, (who only use their nest holes for one spring-time). Shelter from rain/cold/heat; food.

Fly LARGE BLUEBIRD over to limb, and act like feeding babies inside cavity nest. Person inside pokes SMALL BLUEBIRD's head out of hole and begs for food. Many kinds of birds nest in cavities made by woodpeckers. Make a trip to get food for begging babies.

BALD EAGLE appears at top. What's this bald eagle using the snag for? Imagine at lakeside--eagle looks down and spots a fish near the surface. Perch for hunting. Swoop eagle down to catch fish. Come back to eat it. Swoop down and fly off to take fish to nest. Nest is usually on live tree--very large and heavy.

Listen to hear buzzing inside tree. I wonder what all that is. It's driving me crazy--tickles. BEE sticks head out of small hole. Store honey, raise young. Live trees not likely to have cavity or hole to keep honey and young bees safe. (Hold still or walk away, don't swat bees away or you're more likely to get stung),

Listen to hear BEAR sniffing. Bear appears at top. Honey's not safe from everybody! Eats the honey. Sticky mess! Take bear and climb it down and away to find other food. Walk bear back to tree. In late fall, getting cold, bear getting sleepy. Bear remembers open spot inside tree. Hibernation.

RACCOON comes out limb. Safe place to sleep all day. Comes out at night.

RABBIT peeks out from roots. Hops out and around. Dawn & dusk. Snag provides safety.

FOX sneaks up to tree and notices rabbit. Rabbit pops back in. Fox tries to catch rabbit from different parts of roots. Gonna get ya!! Predator comes to snag because he knows lots of animals live there, just like when we go to a restaurant because we know there's a lot of food there. Hop under my roots and you'll be safe! Fox gives up and wanders off.

SKUNK comes out limb. No worry about the fox. Conspicuous warning coloration so fox doesn't even bother skunk. Sleeps in tree. Comes out to scrounge. Show skunk's posture when spraying.

CHIPMUNK tries to come out of small hole but is too fat so it comes out large hole. Got fat from food it stored in snag. Mostly burrows in ground under and around tree. Downed branches.

DUCKLING appears at big hole and flaps wings. What's he doing in there? Nest. How's he going to get down? Looks down and looks worried. Shrugs and jumps (drops) to ground. Waddles off. Follows mom and siblings to pond, lake, or river.

OWL hoots, peeks over top, and turns head to look around. Sleeps in day--needs a quiet safe spot. Roost, nest in snags. Whooo's next? I only have one more friend to show you and you'll never guess who. Inside my snag body it's cool and moist, just the place for this animal when it's away from it's pond.

That's enough animal friends for today! Now for a few questions.

• Who can tell me what a snag is?
• What animals use snags? (Bears, woodpeckers, owls, squirrels, bluebirds, eagles, ospreys, bees, beetles, worms, raccoons, skunks, butterflies, bats, foxes, chipmunks, pack-rats, flying squirrels, frogs...).
• What for? (Food source, food storage, shelter, safety, raise young, hide, sleep, perch, noise-making...)
• How could snags help the forest? (Homes for birds that eat bark beetles, homes for squirrels that spread lichen and fungi, nutrients from downed wood, etc.).
• How can we help snags? Next time you're out firewood cutting with some grown-ups, are you going to cut down this snag? No, you can see the holes and broken top. Show CONK (Fungal fruiting body). Another important clue is conks on the trunk. Pick another one for firewood. Show WILDLIFE TREE SIGN and pretend to attach it to tree--or have an animal come out of large hole and hold it while it's being discussed.

Tell kids you're going to put all the puppets out for them to play with. Plenty of time for them to play with their favorites. Can take a puppet into the snag. One child at a time! Adult needs to hold snag so it doesn't fall over with child inside. Limit time inside so other kids don't get bored or ancy.

** Would be nice to add: flying squirrel, beaver (I have a bear puppet to which I've attached rodent teeth to make a groundhog; it just needs a beaver tail).

** If short on time, could get away with not using: raccoon, chipmunk, bald eagle, skunk.

**If long on time, the book The Dead Tree (in the suitcase with snag and puppets) is really good for covering the end/beginning of the story--what happens to a tree after it falls to the forest floor.

Script Courtesy of:

Amy Hetrick Jacobs
Tally Lake Ranger District
Flathead National Forest