Invasive plant management for land managers is often extensive and overwhelming.

Often, drivers of invasiveness are assumed to be similar across species, and that all require immediate attention.

Depending upon the invasiveness of a species, habitat suitability and limited amount of resources

credit: Fish and Wildlife Service

How's Your Community Doing?
Check Out it's
Community Vital Signs

available, land managers are uncertain how to prioritize limited resources for the most effective management strategy and with which species to work.

Probabilistic maps that predict a species expected spread can be used to prioritize inventory areas, to select populations to monitor for the degree of invasiveness and/or whether the effect of management is best spent on particular locations versus others that may allow a larger window of time before the population expand beyond where eradication efforts would succeed.

Predictive maps of spread can then be used to develop a population prioritization framework for most effective management when resources are limited.

Currently, limited species information has been developed for this type of model.

This partnership will provide NWRS presence/absence data over time and after treatment so that different spread models can be generated, and evaluate how the invasiveness of species populations varies across different environments.

These data and analyses will provide for a model of predicted spread and management strategy prioritization framework for National Wildlife Refuge System Lands.