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This summer, Postmedia’s Tom Spears brings you the often offbeat science behind the season that calls us to go outdoors. It’s all part of a series we call the Science of Summer. Today’s story is on how trees can grow far from where their seeds fall.

If you have a favourite oak tree where you live, thank the local crows, ravens and especially the jays. They likely planted it.

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And now a biologist says one great way to restore a forest damaged by cutting is to bring back some of these birds, because they help trees to spread.

These birds are related to each other, and they’re all smart.

They all hide seeds for the winter — not in one central pile but all over their territory, a technique called “scatter-hoarding.” (Squirrels do the same.)

They hide more seeds than they eventually find and eat, leaving some to sprout in the spring. And they move acorns and pine cones much farther from the tree than if the seeds simply fell.