Boston College tree inventory data archive

Abstract

From 2008 to 2010 Boston College began a comprehensive inventory of all trees contained within its three campuses: Newton, Chestnut Hill, and Brighton. This project has made use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and the standard analog tools of forestry. Campus trees are an invaluable resource for ecology students at Boston College. This project is an example of the use of campus assets to create an outdoor campus laboratory for the acquisition of field skills. This student-collected project currently is comprised of an inventory of 5,133 individual trees representing 98 species on the Brighton and Chestnut Hill campuses. Initiated with the primary objective of calculating BC’s carbon footprint, the project goals were expanded to facilitate investigations in plant demography and diversity in advanced ecology electives. The goal of the project was for students to identify the locations of the trees, genus, species, physical descriptions (such as height, diameter, health factors) and possible conflict or risk factors over a period of time. In the original data, variables to the right of the comments field were never available, but were added as columns to be filled in upon further research in future seasons. Two mobile devices were used to collect the data. The original data is organized into two folders containing shapefiles: GPS535, containing the inventory of 4,037 trees; and GPS600, containing the inventory of 1,096 trees. An additional folder with shapefiles, Trees_Merged, was created by Boston College Graduate Statistical Student Ekin Ustun under the direction of ITS, Research Services. Trees_Merged combined the tree inventory from both devices to create one file. Some data cleanup was also implemented under the direction of Kevin Keegan.