Invasive Plants in PNW Ecosystems
|
Early Detection Protocol Development in the National Parks: Integrating all the Pieces.Susan O’Neill, Bradley Welch2, Penelope Latham1, and Daniel Starr3 Invasive plant species management is a national priority for the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS and other land management agencies have limited resources available for invasive plant control and, therefore, must optimize control efforts. Following the introduction of invasive plants, the most effective management strategy is to detect and respond to invasive species before they become so well established that control is not economically or logistically feasible. At this early stage, predictive capabilities and monitoring strategies that efficiently cover large areas are necessary. Natural resource managers require species prioritization tools, spatially-explicit models, non-spatial models, risk analyses, adaptive sampling designs, and incidental reporting to accomplish these tasks. Many of these components have been applied in other contexts or exist in isolation, but no effort has been made to combine these components into a comprehensive protocol for early detection of invasive plants. We discuss NPS collaborative effort with the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) to integrate these diverse approaches and apply them in National Parks. Our goal is to produce a tool for natural resource managers to develop an early detection monitoring program. A handbook for developing early detection protocols will be available in late 2006 that has broad application yet is sufficiently detailed to be practical for managers. An overview of the individual and collective efforts, their status, and opportunities for sharing these products will be discussed.
|
||
|