Nuts, Nuts and more Nuts

As I saunter about through the woods I keep stepping and rolling around on nuts. They are everywhere under foot. From a squirrel’s point of view I am sure they are thrilled because they make up the bulk of their food supply for the winter. Collectively all these nuts are called “mast”, which is a forest ecology term. Mast is used to describe all of the nuts and fruits produced by woody plants (trees). To break it down even further there is “soft mast” referring to fleshy fruit, like Dogwood, Spice Bush and Poison Ivy berries, and “hard mast” such as Walnut and Hickory nuts. The hard mast tends to come from the higher or canopy trees and the soft mast comes from the understory trees. This is another reason why preserving the understory in our forest is so critical.

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