"Building Continuity Across State Invasive Plant Lists: Evaluating Invasive Risk of Horticultural Plants" is the title of the grant project funded by the Western Integrated Pest Management Center for the 2021 grant cycle. Project partners include California Invasive Plant Council, PlantRight, The University of Arizona, Western Invasives Species Network, and Washington Invasive Species Council. This project is one of three complimentary projects in two other region of the U.S.
Cal-IPC and partner organizations across the US have long identified a need to build better continuity in invasive plant listings across states for stronger IPM. Improved continuity would help listings crosswalk across state lines for a better landscape-level understanding of each invasive plant’s distribution and impacts, essential for effective management strategy. Three entities—Cal-IPC, University of Florida, and University of Cincinnati—are each recieved funding from their respective regional IPM centers to support complementary projects in this overall effort. The University of Florida is working with other southern states on comparing state lists to the best-practices guidelines developed by the National Association of Invasive Plant Councils. The University of Cincinnati is working with other Midwest states on developing a database of resources used in invasive plant assessments.
Cal-IPC will work with partners in Arizona, Oregon, and Washington to support the expanded use of the online Plant Risk Evaluator (PRE) tool. This predictive capacity is important for those in the horticultural and land management communities working to prevent invasive plant impacts before they happen. For instance, plants being considered for development as a new horticultural commodity can be evaluated for invasion risk before major financial investment is made. Also, existing horticultural plants found growing outside cultivation can be evaluated for risk in order to gauge whether they should be prioritized as a management target in natural areas and whether they should be re-assessed as a safe landscaping choice.
Along with the direct benefit from the plant assessments this project will benefit the four states by providing a venue for collaborating on a range of efforts related to preventing introduction of invasive plants through horticulture. Each state can share their expertise on efforts such as providing information on safe landscaping alternatives and surveying nurseries for data on what’s currently being sold.
At the national level this project will share results with other partners and will ensure that PRE is integrated into the collective effort to build continuity across state invasive plant listing.