National Park Service – Overview of Existing Programs Related to Weed Inventory and Mapping and Additional Information/Research Needs

 A.     Servicewide Issues/Programs Related to Weed Inventory and Mapping:

 Ø      Government Performance and Results Act 1993 –

NPS has established a Performance Management System as a result of this GPRA Act.  And as specifically identified a mission goal that we are required to report on related to the management of invasive exotics.  This goal specifically states that:

GPRA GOAL 1a1B – By September 30, 2005, exotic vegetation on 6.3% of targeted parklands is contained.

Problems:   -Definition of “targeted”. -Accuracy of reporting - most parks lack complete baseline weed inventories and/or no standard  methods for defining an “Acre of Infestation”

Ø      USGS – NPS Vegetation Mapping Program:

¨      Through this program mapping is achieved primarily through the use of aerial photography at a scale of 1:24000 (or 1:12,000 for digital ortho quads.

¨      Goal of vegetation mapping is 80% accuracy at the 1:2400 scale.

¨      Minimum mapping unit used is 0.5 hectare.

¨      Vegetation mapping is done at the association level and the nomenclature follow that adopted by the National Vegetation Classification System (TNC approach).

¨      Mapping activities are park specific and are driven by park goals and objectives.

¨      Vegetation Mapping work is ground truthed through the use of reconnaissance/characterization plots to test accuracy of aerial photo interpretations.

Opportunities for the Vegetation Mapping Program to assist with weed mapping efforts:

-      Provide additional training to field crews on weed identification so that they are better at detecting these species.

-      Reconnaissance Plots are not based on weed locations, but the data gathered can be used to help indicate areas with potential weed problems

-      Can use vegetation maps for developing (stratifying invasive monitoring protocols/locations.

Limitation of Vegetation Mapping Program in assisting with weed mapping activities67[]\7:

-         Vegetation Mapping Program does not have a specific focus on mapping weeds.

-         Mapping activities and ground truthing takes a lot of time (Minimum 2-5 years/park to do all vegetation associations depending on the complexity of the vegetation at a given park).

-         Vegetation Mapping Program is a one shot documentation and does not have the capability of long-term monitoring.

 Ø      NPS, Natural Resource Challenge

¨      In 1999, the NPS announced a 5-year strategy to improve our abilities to manage natural resources within the parks.  Specifically, this strategy places emphasis into three main areas: Inventory and Monitoring, Native and Endangered Species, and Nonnative Species.

¨      A couple of these categories have a direct connection to weed management :

Ø      Exotic Plant Management Teams – Were an initiative developed by the Natural Resource Challenge to assist the service to begin to address our invasive species issues.  These teams are based on a model demonstrated at Lake Mead, and assist multiple parks within a specified geographic area with exotic plant management.

·        EPMT’s have two primary functions:

1)     To provide operational management of priority exotic plant species.

2)     To provide training to host and partner park staffs in exotic plant identification, post treatment monitoring, and safe application of management techniques to enable park staffs to assume responsibility for maintaining treated area at an acceptable maintenance level.

·        EPMT’s provide a critical service, however, this program is limited because its efforts are focused on control and management and not on the inventory and mapping of weeds although some teams to perform this function to a limited extent.

·        Again, this often puts us in a position of providing actions without having complete information on weed species and their locations to help us in ensuring that our actions are priority driven and serve the best purpose.

·        Four Teams Established in 2000:  Chihuahuan Desert/Short Grass Prairie; National Capital Region; Pacific Islands; and Florida Parks

·        An Additional 6 EPMT’s Will be funded in 2002:  Florida Partnership; Lake Mead, California Parks; Gulf Coast; Northern Great Plains; and Columbia Cascades

Ø      Inventory and Monitoring Program

 ·        Also initiated in 1999 with the Natural Resource Challenge.  This program established networks of parks based, primarily, on their ecological similarities and, thus, the likelihood that they will have similar ecological parameters that need to be monitored.

·        Primary goals of the I&M Program are:

(a)   Document through existing, verifiable data and targeted field investigations the occurrence of at least 90% of species of vertebrates and vascular plants occurring in each park.

(b)   For species of special concern describe distribution and relative abundance (this can include exotic species).

(c)   Provide the baseline information needed to develop a long-term monitoring strategy tailored to specific park threats and resource issues. (Vital Signs Monitoring).

B.    IMR Region Efforts

¨      Use of NAWMA minimum Mapping standards

¨      IMR Weed Mapping Natural Resources Protection Program Grant

¨      Draft IMR Weed Mapping and Database Development Guidelines

 C.    Individual Park/Network Efforts/Needs

¨      Mapping systems currently used by parks (everybody doing their own thing, due to lack of and specific servicewide guidance; many parks following protocols of others e.g. Montana Weed Inventory and Mapping System, or Southwest Exotics Mapping Program)

 D.    Primary NPS Needs:

¨      Lack of baseline information - most park units lack good weed inventories.  

¨      Need to develop efficient, statistically valid inventory protocols that address both spatial (large land areas vs. small land areas) and temporal (short and long-term monitoring activities) needs.  Especially for smaller parks - need to identify time and money efficient means to that provide a reasonably adequate assessment of weed populations and changes over time.  Also, need to tie into the I&M Biological Inventory and Vital Signs Monitoring.

¨      Greater research efforts on improving remote sensing technologies for use in weed inventory and mapping activities.

¨      Identification and collection of data related to key environmental or ecological parameters that can help predict susceptibility of a large range of habitats to weed invasions (e,g, ecological modeling) and across the larger landscape.

¨      Develop monitoring systems to help quantify the impacts of invasive species on ecosystems.

¨      Develop a regional repository for weed inventory/mapping data that allows for landscape level analysis of weed locations (centralized data system).

USGS, Biological Resources Division 
Denver Federal Center, P.O. Box 25046, Bldg 20, Mail Stop 300
Central Regional Office, Denver, CO 80225-0046 

Contact: jcoffelt@usgs.gov
Updated: 11/27/01