A Management Guide for Invasive Plants in Southern Forests James ...

4Regional and State Program Elements for Invasive Plant ManagementRequired program elements are:• Cooperative knowledge networks that link stakeholders, land managers, scientists, policymakers, and politicalrepresentatives at the national, regional, State, multicounty, and county levels and that provide real time informationand connectivity. Critical to how well the network functions are the timely actions and communications by all thepeople involved, whether they are working in voluntary, delegated, or assigned roles.• Collaborative strategies and programs for spread prevention through: (1) improved laws, policies, and public education;(2) promotion of new corporate and personal ethics to not sell, buy, and plant invasive plants; (3) sanitization ofpersonnel, equipment, and animals that move from or among infested sites; and (4) prohibition against the saleand transport of contaminated products such as extracted native plants, potted plants, hay, pine straw, fill dirt androck, and mulch.• Effective and efficient early detection and rapid response networks to identify and map high-risk sites and newintroductions, verify the invasive species, communicate to others about the newly identified sites, eradicate theinfestations, and restore plant communities resistant to reinvasion• Creation and maintenance of a Web-accessible survey, inventory, and mapping system to corporately track existingand spreading invasions, e.g., Southeast Exotic Pest Plant Council’s Early Detection and Distribution MappingSystem (http://se-eppc.org/). Such a system with retrievable maps is invaluable for identifying and communicatinginformation about zones of high infestations, advancing fronts, outliers, and weed-free zones. As an exampleof the value of current survey results, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) unit of the USDA Forest Service,Southern Research Station, works with State partners to develop the Invasive Plant database http://srsfia2.fs.fed.us/nonnative_invasive/Southern_Nonnative_Invasives.htm. Data on Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica Thunb.)and nonnative privets (Ligustrum spp.) along with 51 other invasive plants in the 13 States of the southern forestOccupation of Japanese honeysuckle and nonnative privets (March 2008)Japanese HoneysuckleLonicera japonicaPrivet /SpeciesLigustrum spp.Forest Acresin a County OccupiedNot Detected