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Of Oaks, Acorns, and Ants · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is David B.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Williams and the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist, Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Every week,
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I share my observations and adventures with the human
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound, and the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode takes a seasonal turn,
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: addressing the great quantities of acorns,
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: gracing our lawns, green spaces, and streets.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about my work,
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: including my new book,
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: In the Range of Fire and Ice,
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: A Human and Natural History of Washington's Cascades,
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: You'll also find a link to my Substack newsletter and my previous five and
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: a half years of newsletters, as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure and welcome to podcast 94 of
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: the Street Smart Naturalist of Acorns, Oaks and Ants, October 1, 2026.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Over the past few weeks,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've been enjoying the acorns along Ravenna Boulevard in our neighborhood.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I first noticed them crunching under my tires as I rode along the road.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Up to an inch long, the acorns were also abundant on the grass under the trees.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Most lack their handsome little beret-like cupule, but were still quite wonderful to behold.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And to gather.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Several times in past years, I've seen people harvesting acorns along the road.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Loaded with carbonate carbs,
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: proteins,
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: and fat,
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: acorns are a splendid food source for people as well as for animals,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: ranging from mice to black bears.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: In Linda Mapes' wonderful book,
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Witness Tree,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: she writes that the scientific name for oaks,
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Quercus,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: could be derived from the Greek koryos,
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: or pig, an animal well-known for relishing acorns.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Taking their relationship further, some animals convert the acorn's hard shell into home.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: When I lived in Boston,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: one of my favorite quote-unquote discoveries was a colony of wee ants inhabiting
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: an acorn.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Unlike many ants which build their own nests,
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: this species,
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Leptothorax,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Longospinosis,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: is an opportunist,
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: moving into a prefab site such as an acorn, rolled-up leaf, or grass stem.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: In an acorn,
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: the ants usually are the second shell explorators,
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: coming after beetle larvae or millipedes that have bored a hole through the shell
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: and eaten the energy-rich acorn.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: After their fellow acornophiles exit,
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: ants move in,
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: clean out the debris, usually frass, and create a little condo of their own.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sadly, I don't know of any acorn-dwelling ants in Washington,
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: most likely because the state has only one native oak, the Gary or Oregon white oak.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: David Douglas bespoke the scientific name Quercus Gariana to honor Nicholas Garry,
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Secretary and later Deputy Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: More common south of Tacoma,
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: particularly on the prairies around the Squally and Fort Lewis,
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Garry Oaks prefer sunny, opened, well-drained sites.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: In Seattle, one can find large Garry Oaks at Seward Park, Oak Manor, and Martha Washington Park.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oak Lawn Place and Oak Hearst Strait indicate that oaks were common
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: or unusual enough to merit street name recognition near Seward Park.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Hearst, by the way, is an ancient word meaning grove of trees.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Edward Curtis wrote in The North American Indians,
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: That indigenous people from around Puget Town would canoe down to
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: the Nisqually Plains and collect hundreds of bushels of acorns,
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: which they roasted, ate raw, or used for bread baking.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Harvesting these delicacies involved active management of the land.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Using fire,
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: the native people killed Douglas fir seedlings,
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: which grow faster, eventually shade out oaks, and can take over an oak prairie.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: If not prevented,
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: so by fire,
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: a process now occurring around Fort Lewis and on the Mima Mounds south of Olympia.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Peaked by seeing the acorns along Ravenna,
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have continued to seek out oaks and acorns around Seattle.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: They are everywhere.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's not clear why the Ravenna oaks, which appear to be English oaks, are having a mast year.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Masting,
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: or mast seeding,
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  SPEAKER_00: is a synchronized production of seeds,
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  SPEAKER_00: often by an entire population of a single species.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Scientists don't fully understand why or how trees accomplish these coordinated boom
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: and bust cycles,
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: but know that it is irregular and has a dramatic impact on a biotic community.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever triggered this year's masting seems to have affected many of
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: the city's oak species, as I have found many other locations with acorns.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: They come from one of the more than 44 species and cultivars in Seattle.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Worldwide, there are more than 500 oak species.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Many are notorious for their promiscuous interbreeding,
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: but I won't dwell on such naughty or evolutionary adaptive trees.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: One notable location with acorn-bearing oaks is near what used to be Oak Hill School
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: in northeast Seattle,
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: which was built near Oak Lake, named for the Gary Oaks that formerly grew there.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: As Linda wrote in her book, oaks have long been entwined with people.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Druids worshipped and whooped under oaks,
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: the Vikings sacked and terrified in their ships of oak,
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: and King Arthur and his pals discussed the great ideas of
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: the day around their circular table of oak.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And of course,
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  SPEAKER_00: all species of oak are beautiful and inspiring,
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: especially in fall as their leaves turn russet and red.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Pacific Northwest is justifiably famous for our conifers,
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: but we also have lovely deciduous trees,
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: many such as oak, which are just beginning to showcase their fall colors.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Such trees are one advantage of living in a city with its diverse population
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: of trees from around the world.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: This essay was originally posted in October 2021 and is still relevant,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: particularly as this seems to be, as I noted, a good last year.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: author and voice of The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: a weekly newsletter and podcast focused on the human
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound, and the Pacific Northwest.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more details about my walks, talks,
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: and books,
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: including In the Range of Fire and Ice,
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: along with a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: check out my website, geologywriter.com.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget to slow down, pay attention, and enjoy the world around you.