Invasive Exotic Plants
Invasive
plants are one of the most serious threats to maintaining ecosystem
integrity in the South Florida and Caribbean parks. In fact, the SFCN
prioritizes them as 5th (out of 41 Vital Signs) in importance for monitoring
ecosystem health. Not only is tracking the distribution, rate of spread
and control of known invasive species important to assessing the health
of the system for supporting native species, but detecting new species
with the potential to become invasive while they are still in small
controllable populations is important to cost-effective management of
this problem. Executive Order 13112 deals with the introduction, spread,
control, and monitoring of invasive species on federal lands.
The protocol for monitoring invasive-exotic plants seeks to discover
whether existing invasive plants are increasing in extent, and whether
new invasives are establishing themselves in and around SFCN parks.
The four monitoring objectives to meet this protocol include:
- Assessing extent and distribution of known invasive species
- Monitoring “Corridors of Invasiveness” to detect newly emerging and existing invasive plant species
- Collecting additional information on invasive species from researchers, park staff, and other Vital Signs
- Developing methods to measure efficacy of NPS exotic plant treatments
Protocol Development Summary (PDF)