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Mapping Invasive Plants

Plant locations in the Four-Corners area.

In the southwest United States, federal and state agencies and tribes have been contributing field observations on invasive plant distribution and abundance for inclusion into a regional database. In just three years, the Southwest Exotic Plant Mapping Program has built a database that now contains nearly 5000 observation points on 45 invasive plant species.

USGS researchers from the Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center provide a manual for collaborators that describes methods for data collection, and they compile data submissions into a regional database that is available on the Southwest Exotic Plant Mapping Program website (http://www.usgs.nau.edu/swemp).

By clicking on a point on the map of the locations, the web user can examine the spatial distribution of a particular invasive non-native plant, the observations made at a particular location or the control methods that may have been used.

Each year more collaborators in the Southwest are participating, and the database has been used for activities such as a roadside weed management program by the U.S. Forest Service, weed management planning by the Navajo Nation, and early detection of new invasive plants. In the next year, the Southwest Exotic Plant Mapping program website will be integrated with the NPS Alien Plant Ranking System, a decision support tool developed by NPS scientist Ron Hiebert.

The program looks forward to the development of the database through data development and technical outreach with land management collaborators, and systematic development of the website as a regional source of information on invasive plant infestations in the Southwest.