What Happened To the Acorns?

 NATURALISTS from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania are reporting there are no acorns this year. The same is true for hickory nuts. Rod Simmons, Arlington County, VA,

Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last month. For 2-1/2 miles, Simmons and other naturalists hiked through Northern Virginia oak and hickory forests. They sifted through leaves on the ground, dug in the dirt and peered into the tree canopies. Nothing.

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe," he said. "But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather, Simmons thought. But he hopes it wasn't a climatic event. "Let's hope it's not something ghastly going on with the natural world."

Internet discussion groups, are reporting the same thing from as far away as the Midwest up through New England and Nova Scotia. "We live in Glenwood Landing, NY, and don't have any acorns this year. Really weird," wrote one. "None in Kansas either! Curiouser and curiouser."

What is the situation in your area?  Do you have acorns?

Comments

[Tom]

I own a seed business, and in 1972-1980 we collected tree seeds for nurseries, including all of the species of oaks in central California. We used to have consistent acorn crops every year, until 1975. I could harvest 200 pounds from a single tree of Quercus lobata, for example.

We have two groups of oaks, the deciduous and the evergreen. Q. lobata,Q. kelloggii, and Q. douglasii fall into the deciduous, and Q. agrifolia and Q. durata fall into the evergreen group.

Probably all of the oaks above the Mason-Dixon line are deciduous and below are mostly evergreen, like the Q. virginiana.

What appeared to be happening to our California oaks, is that the flowers are being hit in spring by acid rain, which I have measured at around 4.7 pH, and then the acorns do not form.

The only time they are forming, is during the current severe drought when we have little or no rainfall during oak flowering period. The deciduous oaks are much more sensitive than the evergreen species, and for the deciduous species, there has not been a good crop for 20 years, or at least not until this last year of severe drought.

The paradox of the California oaks only able to produce an acorn crop during an extreme drought year, is that the ground is then too dry for the oak seedlings to survive, which is what I have seen on my own property.

Plus there are exotic animals in our forest, like introduced turkeys,and wild pigs, that feed on any acorn crop that is produced.

If acid rain or other factors are keeping our North American forest trees from reproducing, we need to get them listed, at least as "Threatened", so that efforts can be made to recover non-reproducing species.

Craig Dremann
Redwood City, CA

[JT]

We're having a great mast year here in the Sacramento foothills. Tons of acorns, and almost as many seedlings, at least on our property. It was a great year last year too. We leave it mostly natural, with leaf litter, unlike most people who seem to love the barren ground under their oaks. How anything can survive in that is beyond me. The Sacramento Bee did report that this was a good acorn year, so it's not just our little paradise.

[Alysia Crawford]

Here in the Atlanta, GA area we have seen an average amount of acorns...but we have also been in quite a severe drought. I do not know if this has a link as in the previously mentioned post, but an interesting observation and it would be great to see the data on drought-affected areas vs. non drought areas and the amount of acorns produced.

[Tom]

We found at least some acorns (red oaks) and some hickory nuts this year on our property. Maybe less than the normal loud shower, but more than a few. The squirrels have been way down so far this year though, as far as I have seen.
Pete Michels
Albany, NY

[Tom]

There are no nuts in Weston, CT either--at least the acorn and hickory type. I can't vouch for the two-legged variety. Lots more squirrel activity at our bird feeders too.

[Gary]

I live in middle TN just south of Nashville. I've noticed no acorns this year. Last year I had bushels.
I haven't checked the hickory. I own some wooded land that is left natural with only wildlife to feed. I wondered if it was because of the dry year or other natural elements. Thanks for the comments across the US.

[Tom]

This year in western Tennessee our Chinkapin Oaks had a bumper crop of acorns but the red oaks had none. The standard White Oaks had acorns also but not as heavy as the Chinkapins. Last year we had a good crop of acorns on both the white oak and red oaks so we didn't expect the reds to bear this year.

The hickory nut crop was very heavy this year also so I don't know what happened to the mast crop in the areas discussed.

[Michelle Serreyn]

I work for a regional park system in the Detroit metro area, and no acorns last year or this year, but we had a mast year two years ago. Our turkey populations seem to be doing well, however, as are our chipmunks. I did have a good year for hazelnuts this year in my yard - they were gone in no time, I never go one!

[Joanne]

I live in Central NJ and I kept saying that I noticed no acorns. Everyone just ignored me. Now that I have heard there are no acorns in other places, I can at least know I am not crazy.

[Jack Lewnes]

This exchange proves two points: One, the exchange of ideas from across America are valuable. Two, Oak trees produce varying amounts of acorns, year to year.

Squirrels know this and they know it ahead of time.