Invasive Exotic Plant Monitoring at Capitol Reef National Park: 2024 Field Season
Perkins DW . 2025. Invasive Exotic Plant Monitoring at Capitol Reef National Park: 2024 Field Season. Science Report. NPS/SR—2025/341. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2314971
Invasive exotic plant (IEP) species are among the biggest threats to natural ecosystem integrity and biodiversity, and their control is a high priority for the National Park Service. The Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN) selected early detection of IEPs as one of the 11 long-term monitoring protocols. This report summarizes work completed during the 2024 field season at Capitol Reef National Park. On May 24, 2024, we detected 102 patches of four priority IEP species along 13.5 km of Cathedral Valley Road. We observed more patches of tamarisk IEPs than in previous years. This increase may reflect how observers categorized infestations into the 400–1,000 m2 class and fewer in the >1000 m2 class in 2024 than in 2019. Tamarisk (Tamarix sp., 86 patches) was the most prevalent priority IEP species. IEP species were found on 96.4% (27 of 28) of monitored transects. All but one of these detections was Russian thistle (Salsola sp.). Russian thistle increased in frequency along the Cathedral Valley Road monitoring route in all four rotations from 2012 to 2024.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Perkins, Dusty
- Date of Issue
- 2025-07
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2314971
- Units
- CARE , NCPN , NRSS
- Keywords
- CARE, Exotic Species, Exotic/Invasive Species - Plants, Invasive Species, Monitoring, NCPN Invasive Plants Monitoring, Plant Studies