Downed woody material (DWM) serves as an important habitat component for many organisms. Although the importance of DWM to these organisms is assumed most studies do not directly study the relationship between DWM and organism use of this resource. We surveyed ground beetles using pitfall traps and meander surveys in piles of DWM that varied by amount of wood and decay stage in the following classes: 1)very low volume, no decay (small branches and twigs), 2)one large tree (early decay), 3)one large tree (advanced decay), 4)two large trees (early decay), and 5)two large trees (advanced decay). Pitfall traps were placed in the center of the wood piles and carabid abundance and species richness and diversity were compared among the five classes. Six replicates of each class were chosen within each stand and twelve stands in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula were used for this study. Four stands were heavily infested with beech bark disease, four stands were selectively thinned five years prior to this study and four stands were undisturbed. Carabid species richness and diversity increased as amount and decay of DWM increased. Carabid abundance was highest in stands with beech bark disease which may be due to increased DWM available from beech tree mortality. Carabid abundance among DWM classes varied by species with seven out of nine species highly correlated with specific DWM types. Since certain species favored specific DWM classes preliminary results suggest that a variety of types of DWM is necessary to maintain biological diversity within forest stands.