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Coarse woody residues (snags and logs) are a massive and functionally important component of high-latitude forest ecosystems, both natural and managed. Decaying logs and snags provide habitat for many organisms and participate in biogeochemical element fluxes within the forest ecosystem. Because of their large mass and slow decay rates, they may also play a significant role in the global carbon cycle. For these reasons, it is important to understand the dynamics of coarse woody debris (CWD) during forest succession. Here, we estimated the biomass of CWD (defined as logs or snags >10cm stem diameter) in nine forest stands, both primary and secondary, on Chiloé Island (42°S), southern Chile. The stands represented a successional chronosequence following non-catastrophic human disturbance by fire and logging. We characterized logs in terms of their decay class, total carbon content, moisture …