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National Invasive Species Information Center
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Home / Web Site Redesign

Web Site Redesign

New website

We are pleased to share our new Web site with our users. We hope you find the new site easier to use and find the invasive species information you need.

  • August 7, 2020 - Our site was updated with a new look and feel, as well as enhancements to functionality.
  • November 16, 2018 - The new site initially launched.

It had been more than 10 years since we made substantial changes and we wanted to make this site more compatible with mobile devices, improve accessibility for people with disabilities, and better tailor the content to meet your needs so you can find what you what quickly. Highlights of major site changes include:

  • We've migrated from a static Web site to a dynamic platform using Drupal for web content management.
  • All linked resources are tagged with species, geographic area, and subject, allowing users to filter Invasive Species Resources using highly refined criteria.
  • Our site is designed to meet the highest standards of accessibility, including those with disabilities (Section508.gov).
  • Our site now has a responsive web design (mobile friendly).

It’s a Work in Progress

Our last major Web site redesign was in 2006. We have reorganized content, moving from a static site to Drupal which provides added functionality to our users. Because the site structure and content have changed substantially, most of our links (URLs) have changed.

If you have bookmarked pages from our site or have linked to our site content, you will need to update those links. We have created redirects where possible, but these redirects will be temporary.

Since our site first launched in 2000 (initially as invasivespecies.gov), it has grown substantially and by 2018 provided almost 20,000 unique resources, which had made the site very cumbersome and time-consuming to maintain. During this redesign, the content has been reviewed and updated, and outdated content has been removed.

We’ve worked hard to launch a site that is easier to locate information. That said, as it is new -- we anticipate some issues. While we launched the redesigned site with the information we thought was the highest priority content, we will continue to add new content and update existing information.

Site Content

Our initial site launch includes the major content for our site -- species profiles, geographic information, and background invasive species information. As our staff resources are very limited, we hope to provide additional content in the future as time permits.

The large numbers of invasive species prevent us from maintaining detailed information on ALL species considered to be invasive. Invasive species information we provide is as an education information tool and is not based on regulatory implications. Determining the invasiveness of a species depends on a number of local factors, including the type of habitat. An invasive species may be invasive in one part of the country, but not in another.

Our Species Profiles provide general information about species considered to be invasive. We have changed how species information was previously organized from the categories of Animals, Aquatics, Microbes, and Plants to the habitat of species. Species information is now organized by Terrestrial and Aquatics Species (with subcategories including plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, and pathogens and diseases).

Our species profiles provide scientific and common names, and background information. Profiles also include distribution/maps/survey status, federal regulatory status, images, videos, selected highly relevant resources for the species, and citations.

We've also included an extensive search function that enables our users to filter resources based on species related resources by either common or scientific name, and by Subject, Resource Type, Location, or Source. See our Invasive Species Resources.

For consistency, our Species Profiles, Resources by Location, and Resources by Subject pages all include a section for "Selected Resources" which includes highly relevant resources for that topic, organized alphabetically by title within the Source group (Council or Task Force, Federal Government, State Government, etc). Or, to display all related content, use the option to "View all resources for topic." This link will display pre-filtered search results for that topic, allowing you to filter and refine and view resources by Subject, Resource Type, Location, or Source.

Contact Us

If you are looking for specific information and are unable to locate it, please Contact Us for assistance. If you would like to provide feedback and/or suggestions on our new Web site, please let us know.