Invasive Plants

Exotic pest plants are negatively impacting the native and highly endemic floras of Cumberland Piedmont Network (CUPN) parks, reducing biological diversity, degrading natural landscapes, and disrupting natural ecological processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. 

Ecological impacts of invasive plants include loss of endangered and threatened species, disruption to natural community and successional processes, disruption of native plant and animal associations, and alteration of natural fire regimes. 

The need to track changes in invasive plant populations is critical to determine the success of exotic plant control, to detect early invasions and predict new invasions before they cause significant impact. In a series of  reports (2003-2007), NatureServe has identified invasive plants as the major threat to natural vegetation communities at most CUPN parks.

The Cumberland Piedmont Network and Appalachian Highlands Network have a recently established Exotic Plant Management Team stationed at Blue Ridge Parkway. This team is currently evaluating parks for invasive plant inventory and control issues. Through the efforts of this team, combined with incoming reports from NatureServe that describe which natural communities are most threatened by exotic plants, priorities will emerge that will allow the CUPN program to focus on higher priority species that pose the most significant threat. 

For example, natural vegetation communities without a current exotics problem could be monitored for early detection of new invasions. With a grid system of plots already established across the network parks, another approach could be to evaluate the number of plots infected over time, so that parks will have a better understanding of the problem. 

Another example, involves mapping areas with exotic problems to determine spread over time. Some parks have mapped some exotics, but the initial mapping baseline would have to be established for most. This effort would coordinate well with EPMT goals. In consultation with the EPMT, SERO, and Servicewide IM Program, protocols will be developed following IM guidelines