Invasive Species

Invasive species are a rapidly expanding threat to wildand ecosystems throughout the Western United States. Invasive species are defined as those that are nonnative (or alien) to the invaded ecosystem and whose introduction is likely to result in economic or environmental harm to human health. (Executive Order 13112). Invasive species can be plants, animals, and other organisms (e.g., microbes). Human activities are the primary spread agent for invasive species.

WWETAC has a number of projects concerning invasive species. These project include:

• Detection, monitoring, and mapping of sudden oak death using hyperspectral imagery
• Spatial modeling of invasive plant spread on roads and river networks in Alaska
• Pathways and risk assessment of emerald ash borer movement into and within the Western United States
• Development of GIS-based maps for the "top 10" invasive weeds in Crook County, Oregon
• Evaluation of models for assessment of threats to wildlands in the Western United States from displacement by cheatgrass and pinyon-juniper woodlands
• GMWest: A risk assessment system for gypsy moth introductions in the Pacific Northwest
• Tamarisk in the Pacific Northwest: current distribution, species-environment relationships, and threat assessment
• Mapping forest composition and structure in the Pacific Coast States with gradient nearest neighbor imputation (GNN)
• Fuel reduction and weed management
• A national early warning system for environmental threats
• National environmental threat assessment maps (NETAM)
• Applying population ecology to strategies for eradicating invasive forest insects
• Western Forestry Leadership Coalition threats to western private forests
• Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment GeoService
• Developing biological control methods for the goldspotted oak borer (GSOB), Agrilus coxalis (Coleoptera: Buprestidae)
• Assessment review of remote sensing technologies for threat detection

Web Resources

There are extensive Web resources available to learn more about the spread of invasive species. For instance, the USDA National Invasive Species Information Center is a gateway for information on invasive species covering state, federal, and international information sources. This site also has a comprehensive calendar of invasive species meetings.