November IPM Series: IPM Reinvisioning

The NPS Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program regularly hosts webinars on a variety of IPM and invasive species related topics which are open to anyone. Throughout November and December, join Jim Pieper and Jamie Howard to hear about a significant re-envisioning effort of the NPS Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program. There are three open house webinars and there will also be a survey available for individuals to provide their feedback and level of support. The NPS IPM Program is excited to hear from people throughout the Service, in order to build a program that works for everyone, including concessioners, at all levels of the organization. Please register for one of the open houses below to learn about the NPS IPM Program re-envisioning efforts and offer feedback. One of the recorded sessions will be posted for those who cannot make any of the sessions. The NPS IPM Program has scheduled three open houses. To register for a session, choose a link below:

Thursday, November 9th at 1:00pm MT (3:00pm Eastern, 12:00pm Pacific)
Wednesday, December 6th at 9:00am MT (11:00am Eastern, 8:00am Pacific)
Tuesday, December 12th at 11:00am MT (1:00pm Eastern, 10:00am Pacific)

In addition to the three reinvisioning sessions, the NPS IPM Program is hosting two upcoming webinars:

The November session will focus on the decades-long partnership to eradicate destructive nutria rodents from Maryland:

Nutria are invasive, semi-aquatic, South American rodents first released into Dorchester County, Maryland in 1943. Since their release, nutria have destroyed thousands of acres of wetlands through their destructive feeding habitats. A concerted effort to eradicate nutria in Maryland began in 2002 following a two-year pilot project to determine if nutria could be eradicated from the Chesapeake Bay and if the damaged marshlands would recover. The Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project, under the direction of a management team initially composed of representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR), Tudor Farms, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and University of Maryland, began the first phases of the project in April 2002. Twenty years later in 2022, the Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project announced that nutria were successfully eradicated from the state of Maryland. In this webinar, participants will learn about nutria and the successful partnership-based program that eradicated the invasive rodents from Maryland. To attend the session, follow the link below:

Wednesday, November 15th at 12:00 MT (2:00pm Eastern, 11:00am Pacific)

The December session will focus on the dilemma for control of invasive species and how incorrect terms limit the capacity to respond:

In a perfect world, definitions of plant responses in the environment are treated as absolutes. Yet we acknowledge the genetic and environmental responses that phenotypes have during evolution, namely plasticity, pose difficulties in decision-making for land managers. Our terminology needs to follow suit to avoid presumptive jargon creating misfits in our understanding for land management. We will examine sets of absolutists, oppositional terminology that obstruct invasive species research, using a native yet invasive species as a framework (Reed Canary Grass - Phalaris arundinacea): native/exotic and invasive/non-invasive, etc. By refocusing our lenses, a taxon should be regarded in terms of its capacity to establish and spread and the potential threat(s) it poses to natural and/or managed landscapes. In other words, view each taxon as a species, rather than associated labels that divert its potential to drain resources for potential control. Re-examination for potential control (yes/no) requires that each land-holding interest group (federal, state, or provincial; Tribal; local authorities; private landowners) differentially shift their land managers’ perspectives and approaches for control. Regulatory agents will, likewise, need to reformulate particular legislation for control of a native invasive species that had been previously assumed as exotic or foreign in origin. To attend the session, follow the link below:

Wednesday, December 15th at 12:00 MT (2:00pm Eastern, 11:00am Pacific)

Additionally, you can find the schedule of monthly themes and register for future webinars on the NPS Common Learning Portal, and you can find recordings of previous sessions on the IPM YouTube playlist. Feel free to send any questions or topic suggestions to e-mail us.