Wednesday - December 17, 2008

Oh Noes!

It’s a sign of the apocralypse!

Some scientists fear a mysterious shortage of acorns this fall in the eastern U.S. will affect squirrels.

Oak trees have shed their leaves, but the usual carpet of acorns is not crunching underfoot.

In far-flung pockets of northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other states, scientists have found no acorns whatsoever.

“I can’t think of any other year like this,” said Alonso Abugattas, director of the Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington, Virginia.

Louise Garris, who lives in the Oakcrest neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, first noticed the mysterious phenomenon early this fall when doing yardwork beneath a canopy of large oak trees.

“I have lived in the area my entire life and have never not seen any acorns!” she said. Garris checked with some local plant nurseries and they confirmed her observation.

The mystery has found its way to the Internet, where a “No acorns this year” discussion on Topix.com yielded more than 180 comments from people reporting acorn disappearances as far away as

“WHAT IS GOING ON?” posted a resident of Maplewood, New Jersey. “Now we are finding dead squirrels! SHOULD WE ALL BE CONCERNED?”

Not necessarily, naturalists say. Last year Garris reported a bumper crop of acorns, which scientists say may be one clue to this year’s scarcity. Virginia extension agent Adam Downing said acorn production runs in cycles, so a lean year is normal after a year with a big crop.

“It fits with the physiology of seed reproduction. The trees are exhausted, energy wise, from last year,” Downing said. [Ok, there’s a cheap sex joke in there somewhere. One oak lying there, having a cig, wanting to talk. The other oak is already snoring]

But even he is surprised at the complete absence of nuts in parts of Virginia.

“There are plenty of acorns in most of the state, but zero acorns in some pockets,” he said.

At the Long Branch Nature Center, calls and e-mails have been pouring in from people who want to donate acorns they’ve gathered in areas where they are plentiful.

It’s also hard to think of acorns without thinking about squirrels. What happens to them when their favorite food disappears? Some Eastern Seaboard residents have reported seeing skinny, aggressive squirrels devouring bird feed.

“Especially in the depths of winter, there’s not much else for the squirrels to eat. Some may switch their diet, many others probably won’t make it,” said Abugattas. “Squirrel and deer numbers will almost certainly go down.”

Posted by Drew458     on 12/17/2008 at 12:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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