(WKBN) — Have you noticed more acorns littered around oak trees than in years past? It’s not your imagination. This fall is experiencing what’s known as a mast year, meaning oak trees are producing more acorns than average.
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Mast refers to fruits, seeds or nuts of trees that serve as food for animals and generally accumulate on the ground, and a mast year is a time when an unusually large amount of mast is produced.
For outdoor enthusiasts, it may mean you’re more likely to get bonked on the head by falling nuts, but for wildlife — and hunters of said wildlife — the implications are greater.
Geoffrey Westerfield, assistant wildlife supervisor at ODNR, says oak trees are very similar to flowers and other plants when it comes to pollination. The oak flowers are actually the little strands the tree sprouts in springtime, and the more pollination they receive, the more acorns the tree will produce…