Beechnuts and black bears

[chuck]

Seems to be a lot of beechnuts out this year (Or maybe I am just noticing them more) Has anyone ever actually seen a black bear up a beech tree trying to get the nuts. We saw a mother black bear and two cubs on the ski slopes at loon on Sunday around noon.

 

[woodstrider]

nutty Bears

Well Chuck, while I myself can not give an eyewitness account of bears in beech trees, I have friends who have seen them up there. But, I have seen beech trees with the claw marks of bears running all the way up the tree into the canopy.

 

[thuja]

they can also just wait until they fall to the ground, and eat them there. Much less work.

 

[forestgnome]

There does seem to be an abundance of beech nuts this year. Besides the claw marks on the trunks of beech trees, you may also notice what I call bear nests (because I don't know what biologists call them). The bear sits in a crotch, high up in the tree, and pulls branches toward her to get the nuts. The branches break so they stay in place. As the bear breaks lots of branches it creates what looks like a huge nest.

 

[MikeM]

I have heard biologists also refer to them as "bear nests" and I have seen them in beech stands here in Vermont.

 

[chuck]

Interesting I have not seen a bear nest. I have seen claw marks on beechs off the Dicey Mill trail in the bowl.

 

[professor]

Any botanists out there know why there is such an abundance of beech nuts this particular year? I have a beech in my yard which has NEVER yielded any nuts until this year (been in the house 14 years). No bears yet, however.

 

[chuck]

I can't remember what exactly he wrote but the author Bernd Heinrich in "A year in Maine Woods" and "Trees of my Forest" wrote about how and why trees put out seed some years and some years they don't. Sometimes holding out for a long time. Its mysterious but well regulated (if thats possible) with everything else going on around the tree, including weather and number of seed eating animals. Well it sounds like the bears will be happy/fatter this year. Anybody know of foods that use beechnuts. I don't think beechnut gum would still actually use beechnuts.

 

[Jim lombard]

A commom wives tale is that more nuts and acorns in the fall means we're in for a bad winter. Seems like allot more walnuts this year, hmmmmm

 

[thuja]

Any botanists out there know why there is such an abundance of beech nuts this particular year? I have a beech in my yard which has NEVER yielded any nuts until this year (been in the house 14 years). No bears yet, however.

It's called a mast year. Oaks do it too. So do douglas firs, for that matter. It's an evolved strategy to keep nut predators at bay. If the trees produce very little for three or four years and then produce a bumper crop, the nut-eaters will be overwhelmed and unable to eat all the nuts. If the trees produced the same amount every year, the population of nut consumers would never have to deal with lean years and could grow to the point where they ate the whole crop.

Or at least that is the general idea. Now as to how the trees "know" that this is the year to produce a big crop, and how they "communicate" this to each other, who knows? Good question.

 

[Puck]

Anybody know of foods that use beechnuts. I don't think beechnut gum would still actually use beechnuts.

One can gather them and spread them out on a sheet pan. (the two inner kernals) and roast them until a few split. let them cool. spread them out on a hard surface and press themby rolling over them with a rolliing pin. This will crack the shells. Keep working them. put everything in a pan of water. Either the nut meats flowt and the shells sink or vice versa..memory fails me. Once seperated dry the meats on the sheet pan in the oven.

They can be eaten as is or used in cooking. If my memory serves me, Eule Gibbons also wrote about this.

When I worked in NYC in my culinary days I wanted to run a special in the fall of roasted pork loin encrousted with beech nuts served with an apple, cranberry maple/burbon compote. so I asked the executive chef where I could get beech nuts. He told me to go sit down at the shore with loose fitting swim trunks.

 

[Chip]

When I worked in NYC in my culinary days I wanted to run a special in the fall of roasted pork loin encrousted with beech nuts werved with an apple, cranberry maple/burbon compote.

I wonder if there are any apple and nut trees near the corn field across from the river on that one section of the AT... An AT Fall Fish and Corn Bake with apple and nut compote may be in the offing !

...so I asked the executive chef where I could get beech nuts. He told me to go sit down at the shore with loose fitting swim trunks.

too much info...

 

[Puck]

I wonder if there are any apple and nut trees near the corn field across from the river on that one section of the AT... An AT Fall Fish and Corn Bake with apple and nut compote may be in the offing !

Are you thinking of a fishing/ backpacking/ pig out in the fall?mmm Huasatonic PCB Brown trout.

This could be interesting; one night inyour corn field then on to eat the cuthroat trout near Mt Riga. There are loads of beech trees up there.

 

[dvbl]

There does seem to be an abundance of beech nuts this year. Besides the claw marks on the trunks of beech trees, you may also notice what I call bear nests (because I don't know what biologists call them). The bear sits in a crotch, high up in the tree, and pulls branches toward her to get the nuts. The branches break so they stay in place. As the bear breaks lots of branches it creates what looks like a huge nest.

Doesn't sound very LNT to me.

 

[sardog1]

Doesn't sound very LNT to me.

And we all know what bears do in the woods afterwards . . .

 

[Neil]

Interesting I have not seen a bear nest. I have seen claw marks on beechs off the Dicey Mill trail in the bowl.

Here's a nice example: Claw marks

 

[slamdog]

Saw one

Although not in a beech tree, this was in a black cherry tree. I was fishing the Jessup River out of the yak and heard all sorts of comotion in the brush adjacent to the river. I assumed it was a bear and was hoping to see it as I had my camera. Then, a relatively small black cherry tree started to shake, and the next thing I see is a bear going up the tree bending branches towards himself and running them through his/her teeth. I got about 4 or 5 pretty good photos. You would have thought there was no way the tree could hold the bear up, as he was way up there and was running out of climbing room. It was pretty impressive. Ward and I were back there a couple weeks later scouting and found the tree, complete with claw marks and broken branches. Another great day in the woods.

 

[Maddy]

A commom wives tale is that more nuts and acorns in the fall means we're in for a bad winter. Seems like allot more walnuts this year, hmmmmm

I sure hope so. I pray it's as cold and snowy this winter as it was hot and muggy this summer.

 

[MattC]

Interesting thread. I saw a bear up in a beech once about two years ago in the Catskills. I was on the Devils Path about halfway between the Hunter junction and Notch Lake. It shimmied down the tree pretty quick and got out of there. It was kind of small-probably a year old or so. I've seen lots of marks on trees in the Catskills.

Haven't noticed lots of beechnuts anywhere yet, but I did notice quite a lot of acorns up in the Shawangunks yesterday-nothing too unusual about that. Interesting what Thuja posted about the mast years though.

Matt