The North America Invasive Species Management Association hosts weekly webinars on various invasive species topics. April 22’s featured speaker will be Dan Tekiela from the University of Wyoming.
Prevention and Early Detection Rapid Response (EDRR) methods have been shown in countless scenarios to be effective strategies to reduce the spread and impact of invasive species. However, the needed “eyes on the ground” to properly monitor the vast landscapes of North America is not economically viable. Because of this challenge, many invasions go undetected for multiple years and become too established for eradication to be a reasonable goal.
One way to optimize the detection of invasions is by monitoring more area in less time utilizing remote sensing. In the recent past, remote sensing technologies have become more sophisticated yet more accessible to the general public. Can these remote sensing technologies be used by land managers to more easily and efficiently detect nascent invasions ad is this something you may be able to utilize in the near future? In this webinar, we will cover:
different remote sensing technologies
the platforms they can be utilized with
and their possible applications in invasive plant management
Dan Tekiela received his B.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Science from the University of Illinois. During that time, he also worked as an invasive plant management technician for a private company managing plant invasions across the mid-atlantic region. He then received his Ph.D. in Invasion Ecology at Virginia Tech while working on quantifying the ecological impacts of invasive plants. He then joined the faculty at the University of Wyoming in 2016 as an assistant professor and state invasive plant extension specialist. Dan’s research and extension program aims to develop tools to assist in both better prediction and detection of new invasions, identify ways to foster healthy plant communities that are resistant to invasion, quantify the ecological and economic impacts of invasive plants, and create management and prioritization tools to reduce the negative impacts imposed by plant invasions.