Beyond North American Weed Management Association Standards

Stohlgren, Thomas; Barnett, David; Simonson, Sara

The North American Weed Management Association (NAWMA) system for mapping non-native plant species provides a standard that will coordinate and synchronize efforts to control and prevent plant invasions. The system creates a standardized format for the collection and mapping of non-native plant species that allows for information to be shared and transferred across boundaries. Sharing information will promote coordinated control efforts, and systems for early warning and detection. The exchange of distribution and abundance information on invasive species is an essential component of containing them. The standards established have been adopted by the US Forest Service, the National Park Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and many other public and private organizations. The authors of the NAWMA standards repeatedly stress that these standards represent a minimum of what should be collected when inventorying and mapping nonnative plant species on the landscape. Incorporating these standards into an inventory and monitoring plan or research project will yield data comparable to non-native plant surveys while serving other purposes and increasing the utility of the combined information. While we applaud the effort to create a standard that will ease the distribution and comparability of data across landscapes, the minimum standards should include methods that incorporate quality assurance and levels of uncertainty.