Miller, James H.; Manning, Steven T.; Enloe, Stephen F. 2010. A management guide for invasive plants in southern forests. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–131. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 120 p.
Required program elements are:
- Cooperative knowledge networks that link stakeholders, land managers, scientists, policymakers, and political representatives at the national, regional, State, multicounty, and county levels and that provide real time information and connectivity. Critical to how well the network functions are the timely actions and communications by all the people involved, whether they are working in voluntary, delegated, or assigned roles.
- Collaborative strategies and programs for spread prevention through: (1) improved laws, policies, and public education; (2) promotion of new corporate and personal ethics to not sell, buy, and plant invasive plants; (3) sanitization of personnel, equipment, and animals that move from or among infested sites; and (4) prohibition against the sale and transport of contaminated products such as extracted native plants, potted plants, hay, pine straw, fill dirt and rock, and mulch.
- Effective and efficient early detection and rapid response networks to identify and map high-risk sites and new introductions, verify the invasive species, communicate to others about the newly identified sites, eradicate the infestations, and restore plant communities resistant to reinvasion
- Creation and maintenance of a Web-accessible survey, inventory, and mapping system to corporately track existing and spreading invasions, e.g., Southeast Exotic Pest Plant Council’s Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System (http://se-eppc.org/). Such a system with retrievable maps is invaluable for identifying and communicating information about zones of high infestations, advancing fronts, outliers, and weed-free zones. As an example of the value of current survey results, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) unit of the USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, works with State partners to develop the Invasive Plant database http://srsfia2.fs.fed.us/ nonnative_invasive/Southern_Nonnative_Invasives.htm. Data on Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica Thunb.) and nonnative privets (Ligustrum spp.) along with 51 other invasive plants in the 13 States of the southern forest region of the United States are posted on the periodically updated Web site. Updating cycles for this FIA invasive plant survey depend on the survey activities within individual States, with most cycles updated in part annually. Current occupation maps and areas are posted at http://www.invasive.org/fiamaps/ and at http://srsfia2.fs.fed.us/data_center/data_mapping.shtml.
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- Formulation of coordinated control, containment, and eradication programs, including cycles of integrated treatments along with monitoring and corporate sharing of both successes and mistakes. As shown in the maps of occupation for Japanese honeysuckle and privets, a coordinated multi-State control and eradication program that targets outliers is necessary to stop the spread, contain advancing fronts, and protect special habitats in severely infested zones. Spread prevention programs are also a crucial element through public education, as are regional biological control programs for widespread severe nonnative invasive plants.
- Restoration treatments to dovetail with control and eradication efforts that guarantee suppression of invasive plants and maintenance of ecosystem functions and services. Adaptive information cycles are especially needed in this rapidly developing field of ecosystem restoration. Continued surveillance and monitoring with timely reintervention are essential for successful rehabilitation and restoration.
- Dedicated invasive plant research and research syntheses are demanded, followed with rapid technology transfer of findings through effective knowledge networks with feedback from the field on additional research needs.
The spread of invasive plants from State to State means that every State must have in place an invasive plant management plan. The plans should share common elements that assure regional protection, including working elements and programs for adaptive collaborative restoration. The plans must permanently implant adaptive management cycles that foster learning about how to control invasive plants, as well as sharing advances in knowledge with all stakeholders in every State. To best constrain invasions and restore eco-services, regional, State, and local strategies and actions should be unified and readily shared through collaborative networks.
