Friday's Findings - August 11 2023
INHABIT: What, Where, and Why of Invasive Plant Species
Title: INHABIT: What, Where, and Why of Invasive Plant Species
Speaker: Catherine Jarnevich, Research Ecologist, Fort Collins Science Center
Date: August 11, 2023 at 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT
There are approximately 4000 non-native plant species within the United States, many of which can become invasive and cause harm. Many managers are hampered by the scope of the invasive species problem compared to their available resources. In response, we have formed a scientist-practitioner partnership to create suitability models for manager-identified priority terrestrial invasive plant species and deliver them via the Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT; https://gis.usgs.gov/inhabit), a publicly available web application with practical information on 200+ invasive plant species. The tool includes downloadable maps and detailed tabular summaries of invasion risk for over 4,000 management units for federal land management agencies and U.S. counties across the contiguous United States. The maps can help prioritize control efforts by providing information on the scope of potential invasions, providing national and regional context to local invasions. The tables summarizing invasion risk and distance to known populations within focal management units can inform watch list creation for EDRR activities. This talk will present the INHABIT web tool and demonstrate its utility to inform invasive species management.