What's Behind The Abundance Of Acorns In Massachusetts This Year?

By Mike Sullivan, CBS Boston

October 12, 2023

BOSTON -- Acorns are falling with fury in New England this year. Residents may have heard a few pelt a car or watched as someone got hit in the head. WBZ asked biologists, what is going on this year with all of these acorns?

Mass Wildlife calls it a potential masting year. Some years oak trees will drop all of their acorns together at the same time. It's an evolutionary process that works to overwhelm predators by covering the ground with acorns. The hope is that some survive becoming food if they all fall at once.

"It's definitely an inexact science. There are a lot of tree biologists that work on these issues," said Martin Feehan, Mass Wildlife Deer and Moose Biologist. "What we do know is there was not a masting year last year, so there is a high probability it will be this year."

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