Dead Trees Support a Bounty of Birdlife, but Preserving Them Isn’t Always Clear Cut
By Ashley Stimpson
When Mark Benedict and his wife, Mary Shaw, moved in 2017 to Salmon Prairie, Montana, a remote enclave about two hours north of Missoula, they felt like they had won the retirement lottery. Their property offered epic views of the Swan and Mission Mountain ranges and was bordered by public land. It was almost everything they had dreamt of during their long careers in Washington State.
There was just one wrinkle: The woods beside their dream home hadn’t been logged since the 1950s and were due for it sooner or later. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) managed the tract, including to harvest timber for wood products and to prevent deadly wildfires. Having spent a decade as a technician with the USFS, Benedict knew a harvest could significantly alter the character of the landscape they loved so much. “I went in with my eyes open,” he says.
