Where are the acorns? - December 1, 2008

This is a strange article from the Washington Post talking about the disappearance of acorns this year.

The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head.
Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill.

But 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 not one to yell about the sky falling but that does seem weird.

Posted by Ben Corman at 12:40 PM

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I've noticed the same thing. However, nut crops are cyclical, so its probably nothing to get worried about.

Posted by: Misanthropic at December 1, 2008 12:47 PM

I'm from Vermont, but live in Florida now. I was on the phone with my father the other day, and he told me how they had an abnormal increase in acorns this year, as well as blackberries. He mentioned something about the Farmers Almanac and how because of these, it is predicted to be a really bad winter.

Posted by: Laura at December 3, 2008 08:59 AM