You can tell the mast vs non-mast years here in Western Massachusetts (USA) by the appearances of bears in town. In good mast years you don't see any. In bad

You can tell the mast vs non-mast years here in Western Massachusetts (USA) by the appearances of bears in town. In good mast years you don't see any. In bad ones you can wake up with your compost bin destroyed as the bears get hungry and come down out of the hills.