It’s A Pine Cone Palooza! Are We Being Invaded in Michigan?

I have a few pine trees in my yard and throughout my neighborhood, and as I started my yard "spring cleaning" I was shocked to see so many pine cones on the ground. I swear it looked like an alien invasion. Seriously, little space ships landing.

Okay, not, but really, I have never seen so many at one time, so what's up?

WHY SO MANY PINE CONES?

The main theory is that this is an amazing scientific outcome of trees fighting insects. Seriously, the trees are protecting themselves from insects.

On the CBS New.com website, Peter DelTredici, Senior Research Scientist at the Arnold Arboretum, says the pine cones falling from the trees now, actually started forming three years ago, so our winter weather isn't to blame for the bumper crop. He says scientists believe it probably has to do with the insect population.

Pine trees don't produce the same amount of cones each year, he says, to throw off the insects that eat the cones. Trees do this as a way of avoiding the predators because if they produce the cones on erratic, unpredictable cycles the insects can't adjust to them.

Who knew that our trees were so smart?

THERE IS ANOTHER THEORY HERE!

However, not everyone buys into this theory. Some believe in natural cycles. Apparently, trees which produce seeds for propagation, like pine, oak, maple, etc, have what's called "mast years", where an unusually high number of fruit is produced by the tree. It is very likely (but cannot be proven with 100% certainty) that 2023 was a mast year for the pines, which led to an overabundance of shredded cone debris (which we are obviously still dealing with this spring).

So, the cleanup continues. Happy raking!