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Special Ecological Areas (SEAs) are areas designated for intensive management, including control and removal of exotic species. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park adopted this approach to exotic plant management in 1985, and found that "the most intact, diverse, unique, and valuable research and interpretive sites in the park can be protected from the impacts of exotic plant species". SEAs should be in representative ecosystems with natural, hydrology and geology, and native wildlife.
The SEA approach is particularly effective where exotic species are widely distributed, making parkwide control impossible without marked funding increases. In these situations, areas are selected that are manageable, have a high native species diversity, and low numbers of exotic species. Management efforts begin with the removal of high threat species, followed by lower priority (potentially disruptive and innocuous) species as time/labor/funding allows. SEAs can be expanded as control is attained in the original area, which should be at least 10 acres in size. This approach only works if re-invasion rates are manageable and the park has people committed to permanent control efforts. As each SEA becomes exotics-free, it may be expanded to encompass more area. Additional zones in the park may be added to the SEA list as labor becomes available to manage and maintain them.
The designation of Special Ecological Areas in the Redwood National and State Parks was based on the representativeness and/or rarity of vegetation, vegetation integrity, plant species diversity, manageabilility, presence of rare flora and, to the extent known, rare fauna, interior to edge ratio / preserve design criteria, degree of immediacy of threats of exotic biota, and research and interpretive value.
Based on the above criteria, the following areas were selected as SEAs:
