Setting Regional Strategies for Invasive Plant Management

Phases 1 &2 (2010 & 2012): The California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC) developed a "risk mapping" approach that combines comprehensive distribution maps with maps of current and future suitable range to show where each (invasive) species is likely to spread. The distribution maps are based on a new dataset created through a major campaign to collect expert opinion data from local resource managers across the state. From this dataset, Cal-IPC recently completed risk maps and management recommendations for 43 invasive plant species in the Sierra Nevada. The proposed project will build an online tool for these data. The tool will allow natural resource managers to generate risk maps and summary statistics for areas they select, and to determine management priorities.

Visit the project website at: http://calweedmapper.calflora.org/regions

Science Delivery Phase (2013): This work delivers CalWeedMapper training, key information on identifying high priority early-detection-and-rapid-response species, and guidance for important mapping. These efforts build on the experience gained through regional work to date and extend it to other regions of the state that have not yet undertaken development of a landscape-level regional strategy. The work also extends the information vertically to agency managers who can consider ways to integrate the approach into their overall program design.