Invasive Plant Species Early Detection in the San Francisco Bay Area Network

The San Francisco Bay Area Network (SFAN) is one of eight networks in the Pacific West Region of the NPS. SFAN is composed of eight park units and includes Point Reyes National Seashore (PORE), Pinnacles National Monument (PINN), John Muir National Historic Site (JOMU), Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site (EUON), and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GOGA) including Muir Woods National Monument and Fort Point National Historic Site. The network fosters collaboration and creates efficiencies of scale in designing and implementing a natural resource focused Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) program. The network has identified vital signs, indicators of ecosystem health, which represent a broad suite of ecological phenomena operating across multiple temporal and spatial scales. Our intent has been to monitor a balanced and integrated "package" of vital signs that meets the needs of current park management, but will also be able to accommodate unanticipated environmental conditions in the future. Invasive plants represent a particularly high priority vital sign for SFAN because of the negative effects they have on the park resources, including altering landscapes and fire regimes, reducing native plant and animal habitat, and blocking views and increasing trail maintenance needs. Parks need to know where incipient populations of highly invasive plants are becoming established, and protect the most critical areas from invasion. This year was the second full field season of testing the early detection protocol. The methods detailed in this report focus on surveying road- and trail-side in priority areas using volunteers, and is based on the SFAN I&M Network's Early Detection Monitoring of Invasive Plant Species in the San Francisco Bay Area Network: A Volunteer-Based Approach.