Graduation Year
2025
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Reader 1
Heather Williams
Reader 2
Kimberly Drake
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2025 Lucy S Thomas
Abstract
This report summarizes my EA190 capstone project which analyzes the prevalence of an invasive oak-boring beetle, the Gold Spotted Oak Borer, at Bearpaw Reserve, in collaboration with the Wildlands Conservancy. Over the course of the semester our team of four students surveyed 636 black oaks using Survey123 to document the signs of the GSOB, including exit holes, epicormic sprouting and bark staining. We then used ArcGIS Pro and R Studio to synthesize our collected data. Our findings revealed an 8.33% infestation rate among surveyed trees, the general trend being that older trees were targeted, but with some young trees also showing signs of GSOB damage. Our final deliverables included an annotated bibliography summarizing existing literature on the GSOB and a web map made in ArcGIS Pro with our data points and added visual analysis. We presented our work, findings, and maps on May 1st, 2025 to the Wildlands Conservancy and the Claremont Colleges.
Recommended Citation
Thomas, Lucy S., "Protecting California’s Oak Forests: An Evaluation of the Prevalence of the Gold Spotted Oak Borer in Bearpaw Reserve" (2025). Scripps Senior Theses. 2699.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2699
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
