2012 is Slated to Be the Worst Tick Year in History In Central
Park, more than 1,000 trees in the red oak family were spangling
the scenery with the colors of autumn. But this year, they were
failing to do something else they generally do in the harvest
season: produce acorns. “I remember going into areas and you’d
get the crunch of acorns under your feet,” said Neil Calvanese,
vice president for operations at the Central Park Conservancy.
“And this year, you kind of have to search around for them.” It
is a phenomenon happening not only in New York but also
throughout the Northeast. While last fall set a recorded high
for acorn production, at roughly 250 pounds per tree, this year
is seeing a recorded low, with a typical tree shedding less than
half a pound of its seeds, said Mark Ashton, a forest ecologist
at Yale University. On average, oaks produce about 25 to 30
pounds of acorns a year. “Scarlet oak, black oak, true red oak,”
Dr. Ashton said. “These are the ones that dominate our forest,
and these are the