National Ranking and Mapping of Weeds

NATURESERVE DESIGNS RANKING PROTOCOL:

Terri Killifer of Natureserve reported that a ranking system has been designed and is being used to rank existing invasive plant species of the United States. This effort builds on the National Park Service ranking protocol designed by Ron Hiebert years ago to make land management decisions. Natureserve's sound scientific update of the method will give all land managers a defendable list of problem plants or management targets. The list will differentiate between two kinds of existing weeds: 1. those that have escaped from cultivation and 2. native plants that have been moved from origin. Natureserve's intent is to create consensus within the conservation community, promote impact research, and increase public awareness. This protocol will not affect importation of new plant species, only those already here.

MAPPING LARGE SCALE IN MEXICO:

Rafaela Paredes, is mapping the huge Pinacate Reserve in the Sonoran desert, some 714,000 hectares. Invasives are being delineated to make management decisions. They are using the NAWMA mapping standards and GPS technology to record data. There are 97 invasive plants in the Reserve, mostly grasses and asters. The top three are: buffelgrass, Sahara mustard, and salt cedar. They are observing a huge correlation between highway location and the spread of these weeds. Control methods include: ADOT herbiciding buffelgrass; pulling/cutting of the mustard, and a cut stump treatment of salt cedar. They have a booklet, Bioinvaders that they are translating to Spanish. It focuses on their top 10 impacting plants. This booklet could be of use in Southwestern States.