How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Dick Thomas says the answer is 700 pounds. He came up with the solution to the riddle in June, while working as a fish and wildlife technician for the State Department of Environmental Conservation. Since then his little joke has popped up all over America.

When it found its way to the television game show ''Jeopardy,'' the phone at Mr. Thomas's home in the Livingston County town of Caledonia immediately started ringing with calls from friends who wanted to be sure he knew what happened.

Mr. Thomas has become used to the attention. Newspapers Around the Nation

''I've got my woodchuck file right here,'' he said this week. ''It would be a lot bigger, but I didn't start keeping it right away.''

The file includes stories from newspapers all over the country. Mr. Thomas can't even guess how many times the story was picked up after it first appeared in The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.