WASHINGTON (7News) — If your lawn across D.C., Maryland, or Northern Virginia suddenly looks like it’s sprouting a mini forest—you’re not imagining things.

Those little “helicopters” from last year have landed, and now they’re everywhere!

I checked in with Peter Haakon from Nuleaf Lawn Care to get to the root of what’s going on and the answer is actually a perfect storm.

“So that's another reason why so it was like a trifecta. We had a major drop of seeds.”

Every few years, maple trees go into what’s called a “mast year”—basically a seed overload.

“About every 3 to 5 years the maples will produce what they call a mast year, meaning an unusual amount of seeds.”

Add in this winter’s colder-than-normal stretch (top 25% of coldest winters) and long-lasting snow cover, and those seeds were perfectly protected.

“That cold weather that we had, it protected them, it insulated them.”

Even wildlife played a role—fewer seeds were eaten, so more survived to sprout this spring.

The result? Lawns across the region are now packed with baby trees.