Food for future trees?

[michiganfarmer]

My dad keeps all the fallen limbs, and dead trees picked up in his 8 acres of woods. The place looks almost like it has been swept. I have considered picking up all the dead fall to burn in my furnace, but I got to wondering if that would deprive future generations of trees of compost, and would it hurt future growth.

Any people know, or have any ideas?

[forester1]

Dead wood is important to the ecosystem. All sorts of insects, fungi, amphibians, birds, and mammals depend on it. No one knows how much is the right amount to leave in the forest, but some should be left. Big wood, standing and down is especially important.

[dano2840]

i leave the narly looking stuff and soft wood and hard wood, i try to make sure im not depriving it of nutrients, also i fertilize my sugar woods with all the ash from my wood stove and evap. which ends up being like 30 5 gal buckets worth, they say to actually fertilize properly you need to put out 10 bushels of ash/ acre