""We keep seeing these oak groves getting infested and declining, and a lot of oak mortality," said Beatriz Nobua-Behrmann, an ecologist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, or UCANR. "And as we go north, we have tons of oak woodlands that are very important ecosystems over there. It can even get into the Sierras if we don't stop it. So it is scary.""
""He saw die-back. He saw all the leaves on the crown were brown, which is one of the characteristic signs of a GSOB infestation," Clark said in a blog post published this week, using the acronym for the invasive insect. The forester examined the tree and found D-shaped holes - the calling card of the goldspotted oak borer - where the beetles had chewed through the tree to emerge from the bark."
The goldspotted oak borer, a less-than-half-inch invasive beetle, has been detected in Ventura County, marking its northernmost known presence in California. The insect has killed about 200,000 oaks across San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties since 2008. Infested trees show thinning canopies, black or red trunk stains, die-back and D-shaped exit holes where beetles emerge. Foresters first spotted affected coast live oaks in Simi Hills' Box Canyon in summer 2024. Ecologists warn the pest could spread into extensive oak woodlands and the Sierras if not contained, prompting containment and monitoring efforts.
Read at Los Angeles Times
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]