That is interesting, although attracting more of some of the critters might not be a positive addition to a neighborhood setting, like raccoons or bears.
I love the article, fascinating. It was all stuff one could imaginative, if given some thought, but the occasion to do the thinking might not otherwise arise without encountering the article, or a "snag" tree.
Our yard is not big enough to home a dead tree, but I have started a brush pile in a shady, out-of-the way spot near the tree/brush line that separates our yard from neighbors. I think some chipmunks have moved in since I saw at least 2 coming & going from the brush a couple times, but it's been too hot for the past couple months to sit & observe the wildlife to possibly see them again.
We do have 2 sick cherry laurel trees that need to come down because gummosis has caused big holes in their trunks. I definitely plan to add a lot of that material to the brush pile, and we'll burn some of it over the winter, and use some of the unaffected parts in grill for smoking meats. The brush pile been there for a couple years and the soil under/around the brush pile has turned dark and seemingly very fertile. A lot of what I used to start it was live trimmings from keeping the tree limbs from bumping our heads, a constant trimming chore, so those decomposed leaves have been the primary factor so far. Only the smaller twigs would have had time to decompose yet. I've been using that soil for smaller potted plants & it's going very well, just like when I had a compost pile (which I gave up in favor of methods that don't require moving OM, I put it in it's final place the first time.) I can change the soil as often as I want for free.