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The term refers to a common raw material for producing paper. In this context, "dead trees" always refers to paper. Related terms include tree carcass for a book and tree-killer for a computer printer.
These dysphemisms are generally used humorously, though seriously. Although the trees involved are rarely threatened rainforest trees, they are often threatened non-tropical old-growth trees. However, it is interesting to compare the environmental impact of manufacturing and transport of books to that of electrical power generation and computer hardware manufacture. See also recycling for discussions of the processes involved.
A related saying among computer aficionados is "You can't grep dead trees." From the Unix command grep meaning to search the contents of text files, this means that an advantage of keeping documents online rather than printing them is that they can be more easily searched for specific contents.
To be merged:
Dead Tree format (or dead-tree-ware) is a literal, gently pejorative or humorous way of referring to paper media such as books, newspapers or leaflets. It is often used to contrast them with electronic or cyber-materials, like e-mails and websites, or media such as radio and television that convey information without requiring the pulpification of wood.