Best Management Practices (BMPs)
EARLY DETECTION-RAPID RESPONSE (EDRR):
There's a new acronym in town and everyone should know what it means! EDRR is so common sense, it needs little explaining. EDRR is a national strategy to identify a new invading species as quickly as possible in order to eliminate it as soon as possible. Perhaps the idea is not new, but the method is and it's gaining momentum. New invasive plants can actually be eliminated and/or eradicated if detected early. Alberta has done this with Wooly cup plant. North Carolina has done this with Witchweed. All this before the concept of EDRR was formalized.
Thanks to the Federal Interagency Committee for Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds (FICMNEW), a coordinated system is being set up for the United States. What if it were extended to Canada and Mexico ultimately? We have a lot of work to do.
Key to the success of EDRR will be spotting new invasives and reporting them to the EDRR to verify, assess, and respond based on the collective national knowledge base. Two pilot program States are being chosen to field test the design. A plan to implement nationwide will follow after fiscal year 2004. Greener Roadsides will keep you in the loop. Also check with http://www.fws.gov/ficmnew/
NAWMA MAPPING STANDARDS:
(Editor's note: the idea of inventorying or mapping where weeds and other plants are located is catching on. But wait, if we are all collecting information in different formats, we will not be able to share information. The North American Weed Management Association discussed this some years ago. After their hard work, we now have a common standard to use, so field information will be compatible with that collected by other agencies. It is now available on CD-ROM. For more information check out www.nawma.org).
Thanks to Craig Searle, Danielle Bruno, and Adrienne Peterson, just a few of the folks who worked on this practical idea, NAWMA has set a minimum standard of data collecting and documentation. The basics of what, where, and how much ultimately form a single GIS layer of maps used by land managers. Currently the system will allow only one tenth acre infestation as the smallest input. This will change as technology evolves. Many speakers at the Weeds Across Borders conference reference these standards as their baseline in vegetation management.
COOPERATIVE WEED MANAGEMENT AREAS (CWMAs):
Here is a practical partnership idea breaking out across the West!
