Randy G Westbrooks

Short Biography

Randy Westbrooks received B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from the University of S.C., and a Ph.D. in botany and weed science from N.C. State University.  Since 1979, he has served as a Federal Invasive Species Prevention Specialist – first with USDA APHIS PPQ, and more recently the USGS National Wetlands Research Center.  Currently, Dr. Westbrooks is working with state and provincial interagency groups to develop new capacity for early detection and rapid response to new invasive plants across the U.S. and Canada.  In the U.S., the effort is focused on the establishment of State EDRR Committees, and ultimately the development of a National EDRR System for Invasive Plants.

Selected Publications.

Westbrooks, R. and J. Preacher.  1986.  Poisonous plants of eastern North America.  University of South Carolina Press.  Columbia, SC.  226 pp.

Sand, P., R. Eplee, and R. Westbrooks.  1990.  Witchweed research and control in the United States.  Weed Science Society of America.  Monograph #5.  154 pp.

Westbrooks, R.  1991.  Plant Protection Issues I.  A commentary on new weeds in the U.S.  Weed Technology  5:232-237.

Westbrooks, R.  1992.  Regulatory Exclusion of Foreign Noxious Weeds from the United States of America by USDA APHIS.  Proc. 1^st Intl. Weed Control Congress.  IWSS.  Melbourne, VIC, Australia.  February, 1992.  pp. 110-112.

Hall, D., V. Vandiver, and R. Westbrooks.  1992.  Discovery of Oryza rufipogon (Poaceae: Oryzeae), new to the United States with its implications.  Sida  15(1):105-109.

Westbrooks, R. and G. Cross.  1993.  Serrated Tussock in the United States.  Weed Technology  7:525-529.

Vitousek, P., C. D’Antonio, L. Loope, M. Rejmanek, and R. Westbrooks.  1997.  Introduced species:  a significant component of human caused global change.  NZ Journal of Ecology  21(1):1-16.

Westbrooks, R.  1998.  Invasive Plants.  Changing the Landscape of America.  Weed Fact Book.  Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds.  Washington, D.C.  109 pp.

Westbrooks, R.  2001.  Invasive species, coming to America.  New Strategies for biological protection through prescreening, early warning, and rapid response.  Wildland Weeds.  Winter Issue.  Pp. 5-11.

Westbrooks, R.  2002.  New global strategies for Weed Prevention through Mandatory Pre-screening, Early Warning, Rapid Response, and a New Biological Protection Ethic.  Proc.  Pp. 9-20 in Proceedings, First International Weed Prevention Workshop.  Madrid, Spain.  United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization.  June, 2002.

Westbrooks, R.  2004.  New Approaches for Early Detection and Rapid Response to Invasive Plants in the United States.  Weed Technology 18:1468-1471.

Westbrooks, R. 2006.  Update on Efforts to Develop a National Early Detection and Rapid Response System for Invasive Plants in the United States.  Proceedings Third Biennial Weeds Across Borders Conference, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.  Federal Highway Administration and the Sonoran Desert Museum.  May, 2006.    

Westbrooks, R. 2008.  Update on Development of the U.S. National EDRR System for Invasive Plants in the United States.  Proceedings, 4^th Biennial Weeds Across Borders Conference, Banff, Alberta, Canada.  U.S. Federal Highway Administration and the Alberta Invasive Plant Council.  May, 2008.    

Westbrooks, R. and R. Eplee.  2011.  Early Detection and Rapid Response.  Pp. 169-177 in Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions, D. Simberloff and M. Rejmanek, Editors. University of California Press.  Berkeley, CA.

Leslie, A. and R. Westbrooks, Eds.  2011.  Invasive Plant Management Issues and Challenges in the United States - 2011 Overview.  Proceedings, Invasive Species Symposium, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C.  August, 2005.

Westbrooks, R. and A. Tasker.  2011.  Overview of Prohibited and Permitted Plant Regulatory Listing Systems.  In Leslie, A. and R. Westbrooks, Eds.  Invasive Plant Management Issues and Challenges in the United States - 2011 Overview.  Proceedings, Invasive Species Symposium, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C.  August, 2005.

Iverson, R., R. Westbrooks, R. Eplee, and A. Tasker.  2011.  Overview and Status of the Witchweed (Striga asiatica) Eradication Program in the Carolinas.  In Leslie, A. and R. Westbrooks, eds.  Invasive Plant Management Issues and Challenges in the United States - 2011 Overview.  Proceedings, Invasive Species Symposium, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C.  August, 2005.

Westbrooks, R.  2011.  Federal Interagency Coordination for Invasive Plant Issues – the Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds (FICMNEW).  In Leslie, A. and R. Westbrooks, Eds.  Invasive Plant Management Issues and Challenges in the United States - 2011 Overview.  Proceedings, Invasive Species Symposium, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C.  August, 2005.

Westbrooks, R.  2011.  Interagency Partnering for Weed Prevention – Progress on Development of a National Early Detection and Rapid Response System for Invasive Plants in the United States.  In Leslie, A. and R. Westbrooks, Eds.  Invasive Plant Management Issues and Challenges in the United States - 2011 Overview.  Proceedings, Invasive Species Symposium, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C.  August, 2005.

Westbrooks, R. and E. Brabson.  2011.  Overview and History of the Beach Vitex Task Force – An Interagency Partnership in Action.  In Leslie, A. and R. Westbrooks, Eds.  Invasive Plant Management Issues and Challenges in the United States - 2011 Overview.  Proceedings, Invasive Species Symposium, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C.  August, 2005.

My Science Topics

My USGS Science Strategy Areas

Introduction.  Throughout history, as people colonized the Earth, they brought cultivated plants and domesticated animals along with them. Since European settlement of North America began in the 1500s, over 50,000 types of plants and animals (species, varieties, and hybrids) have been introduced to the United States. While most of these species provide great benefits to human society, a small percentage of them have escaped from cultivation and pose a threat to food and fiber production, and/or natural areas. To date, about 4,200 species of introduced plants, or about 8.4% of total introductions, have escaped from cultivation and established free-living populations in the country. 

Scientists at Cornell University estimate that losses to the American economy due to introduced invasive species are now over $138 billion per year.  Of this total, costs and losses due to invasive plants are now at least $50 billion per year.  Unlike chemical pollutants that can be eliminated from use and will eventually break down in the environment, invasive species can reproduce and spread, causing ever increasing harm.  Our biggest challenge is to control invasive species faster than they can reproduce and spread. 

Since only about 2% of the U.S. population is now engaged in agriculture or land management, there is less awareness of this issue than in generations past.  Clearly, land owners and managers, gardeners and horticulturalists, and others who have a strong connection to the land, have a major role to play in ongoing efforts to deal with this ‘silent ecological explosion’.

EDRR – Preferred Management Strategy for Addressing New Invasive Species. 
Currently, there are numerous agencies as well as interagency groups involved with invasive plant management across the United States – including State Invasive Species Councils (e.g., the Maryland Invasive Species Council), and Cooperative Weed Management Areas (e.g., the South Fork WMA, Wyoming).  Such agencies and groups routinely employ a number of strategies to manage widespread invasive plants through prevention, control, and public outreach.  However, it is always a challenge to address new invasive plants - even though Early Detection and Rapid Response (EDRR) is clearly the preferred management strategy for preventing the establishment and spread of new and emerging species.  Implementation of the principles and practices of EDRR for new invasive plants on a single land unit is a rather straightforward process that aims to protect biodiversity and/or the production capacity of the land.  This is accomplished by taking steps to contain the infestation, to stop further seed production, and to exhaust the seed reserve in the soil.  However, efforts to address new invasive species that occur on multiple land units, and across multiple jurisdictions, typically require the cooperation of numerous agencies, as well as impacted and potential stakeholders, to be effective.  By the mid-1990s, it was clear that a cooperative approach for weed prevention was needed – a National EDRR System for Invasive Plants.

Development of a National EDRR Framework. 
Development of a National EDRR System to address invasive plants on multiple land units was first adopted as a long range goal by the Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds (FICMNEW) at its first bi-annual program planning retreat in Shepherdstown, WV, in 1998.  Since that time, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE), and more recently, the Invasive Plant Atlas of the MidSouth (IPAMS), have been working with agencies and organizations across the nation to develop such a system. 

Conceptually, the National EDRR System is a coordinated framework of interagency partner groups that are working together to increase EDRR capacity through: 

- Interagency Coordination (by State Invasive Species Councils and State EDRR Committees);
- Early Detection and Reporting of suspected new plants to state officials (by trained volunteers, agency field personnel, conservationists, and scientists);

- ID and Vouchering of suspected new plants (by cooperating botanists and herbaria);

- Archival of new plant records in regional and national plant databases [e.g., the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (UCONN), the Invasive Plant Atlas of the Mid-South (MSU), and the USDA Plants Database];

- Rapid Assessment of new plant species for invasiveness (by federal and state scientists); and,

- Rapid Response to confirmed new invaders [by Cooperative Weed Management Areas (eradication of weeds within a defined area); by Invasive Plant Task Forces (eradication of specific new weeds, (e.g., the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force); and by Single Agency-led Weed Eradication Programs (e.g., the USDA-Carolinas Witchweed Eradication Program, and the CA Dept. of Food and Agriculture].

Once fully developed across the United States, the National EDRR System for Invasive Plants will provide an important second line of defense against invasive plants.  It will also serve to complement federal efforts to prevent unwanted introductions at U.S. ports of entry. With both prevention and early detection systems in place, the nation will be more able to defend against “plants out of place”.

Image: Beach Vitex at DeBordieu Colony Beach, Georgetown, South Carolina.