PARENT SESSION
Oral Contributed Papers: Early Detection Rapid Response and Prioritizing
Moderator: , TBA ,
Thursday, November 6, 2003, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Florida Ballroom C
Prioritizing invasive plants.
Killeffer, Terri*,1, 1 NatureServe, Arlington, VA, USA
ABSTRACT- Among the thousands of non-native species that have been intentionally or unintentionally introduced to the U.S. from other places, relatively few are ecologically troublesome. With limited resources available for managing natural areas and other native species habitats, setting priorities is imperative. To best guide conservation action, it is essential to know which non-native species pose the greatest threats to natural habitats. To date, despite many policies and programs focused on non-native species, there is no broad agreement on which non-native plants are considered the most invasive in the United States. What is missing is a scientifically based assessment identifying the most invasive species. In 2002, in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. National Park Service, NatureServe completed a widely reviewed and tested scientific protocol for objectively assessing the invasiveness of non-native plants. NatureServe is now applying this method on a national level to evaluate the invasiveness of approximately 3,300 species of non-native flowering plants, ferns, and conifers known to grow outside of cultivation in the United States. Our goals are to produce a scientifically credible list of the nation′s most invasive plants, produce a list of apparently non-invasive non-native plants, identify species in need of further research, distribute the information through our website (www.natureserve.org), and provide other products and further analysis. The information developed from this process should greatly benefit the work of land managers in the conservation, government, and corporate sectors, as well as gardeners, landscapers, the nursery industry, private landowners, and conservation organizations.
Key words: plants, invasives, ranking, non-native