We love answering listener's questions and recently we received one that is a common query at both the Audubon and the Forest Society. Why is it that some years there are tons of acorns and other years hardly any? The number of acorns a tree produces in a given year has to do with masting. Not mast like on tall ships, but mast as in masticate, or to chew and it refers to the fruit, seeds or nuts that trees produce and are in turn fodder for animals. Especially in New Hampshire, oak mast follows