Deadwood is full of life
On the Croft estate, we mostly leave branches where they drop and trees where they fall.
Fallen deadwood is a valuable habitat, a home to woodlice, beetles and countless other creatures. Standing deadwood is even better. Even after death trees survive as monoliths, a host to myriad plants and animals, and a roost for birds and bats.
Apart from the narrow ring of sap wood, all the wood on the tree is in fact dead and that's where the green woodpecker finds insect larvae.
Fungi
White mycelium threads through the leaf-litter, through tree roots and the very fibre of the wood. Fungi help break down dead matter, are a food source for animals and some have a symbiotic relationship with trees.
There is an explosion of fruiting bodies in autumn but some such as the birch polypore, a species of bracket fungi, can be found at any time of the year.