Nuts rely on gravity and animals to disperse them. Squirrels are one of the most important animals to disperse nuts. They collect and store nuts so they’ll have food to last them through the winter. Gathering nuts benefits trees as well as the squirrels.
Gray squirrels bury their nuts. The problem with that is that they often forget where they’ve buried about 50 percent of the nuts. The forgotten nuts then produce trees in new areas. Red squirrels store nuts in piles on the ground. That isn’t terribly beneficial, because they dry up and don’t take root.
Red squirrels adapt better to environmental changes than gray squirrels and therefore the squirrel population is leaning more towards red squirrel survival. Unfortunately, oak, walnut, and other hardwood forests could shrink.
Gray squirrels live primarily in forests, and as their habitat gets wiped out, they have to move to farm lands and parks. They struggle to adapt.