3. They Are Accidental Foresters

While some may view them as garden pests, gray squirrels play a vital, often-overlooked role in maintaining the health and regeneration of our forests. Their habit of scatter-hoarding nuts makes them one of the most effective seed dispersers in the ecosystem. In fact, many tree species, particularly those with heavy nuts like oaks, hickories, and walnuts, depend heavily on squirrels for their propagation.

These trees produce nuts that are too heavy to be dispersed by wind. They rely on animals to carry their seeds away from the parent tree, where a new sapling would have to compete for sunlight and nutrients. A gray squirrel will gather a nut, carry it hundreds of feet away, and bury it in an ideal location for germination—typically just an inch or two below the soil surface.

Because no squirrel has a perfect memory, and because some squirrels fall victim to predators before they can retrieve all their caches, a significant percentage of these buried nuts are never recovered. These forgotten caches are perfectly planted seeds. They are protected from foraging birds and insects, buried at the right depth, and ready to sprout when spring arrives. Essentially, every time a squirrel buries a nut and forgets it, it plants a tree.

This relationship is a classic example of mutualism, a symbiotic relationship where both species benefit. The trees provide the squirrels with a high-energy food source, and the squirrels, in turn, ensure the next generation of trees can grow. Scientists refer to squirrels as “keystone species” in some hardwood forests because their seed-dispersing activities have a disproportionately large effect on the ecosystem’s structure and health. Without them, the composition of our forests would look very different.