Weed Inventory/Mapping Update
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20240
http://www.blm.gov
January 15, 2014
In Reply Refer To:
9015 (220) P
EMS TRANSMISSION 02/04/2014
Instruction Memorandum No. 2014-038
Expires: 09/30/2015
To: All State Directors
From: Assistant Director, Renewable, Resources and Planning
Subject: Weed Inventory/Mapping Update DD: 2/28/2014
Program Area: Weed Inventory Update
Purpose: Weed population information, compiled by the State, will be incorporated into the updated Vegetation Treatments Environmental Impact Statement and provided to the Department of the Interior, Congress, Federal, State and county agencies.
Policy/Action: Each state is asked to provide the most recent accurate weed inventory data post- 2000 using the attached form (Attachment 2). The form includes a list of twenty-seven non-native invasive plant species that has been identified and verified by the BLM National Weed Team for inclusion in this data call. Field personnel can provide additional weed species inventory data collected in their field office for species not listed on the form, by adding additional lines to the form.
In reporting the data for each of the species there are three types of data to consider: net infested inventoried acres, gross infested inventoried acres, or gross infested estimated acres. Each state should report any existing information from previous or current on-the-ground inventories. Attachment 1 provides definitions associated with the gathering of the data along with instructions fill out the form. It is extremely important for the field offices to spend the necessary time compiling the information and reporting it as accurately as possible to ensure the information presented represents the extent of invasive plant species found on lands the BLM administers.
The “Field Office Weed Inventory Form” (Attachment 2) will be sent to each field office, by the state weed coordinator, for the purpose of recording the number of infested acres within each field office.
- The completed excel form will be returned to the state weed coordinator, by February 28, 2014, who will track the return of the forms to make sure all of the field offices have provided information.
- Following the return of all the completed forms, the state weed coordinator will send the individual field office data forms to Richard D. Lee, IPM Specialist, OC-580, National Operations Center, where they will be summarized.
For those field offices that have fully implemented NISIMS and have all of their current and legacy (from 2001 and later) infestation data in the database, the person completing the form (Attachment 2-1) should go to the NISIMS SharePoint site where direction for using the NISIMS data retrieval tool is outlined. This tool will output all the necessary acreage summaries required for this data call. All legacy infestation data that was submitted to the WO, in accordance with the three previous IMs have been incorporated into the NISIMS database, and should be available for completing the data call using the NISIMS data retrieval tool.
If only partial or incomplete infestation data was submitted during the identified data calls, and/or if current infestation data is not being captured using NISIMS, the field office can use the NISIMS data retrieval tool to extract acreage summaries from the NISIMS database, but will also have to manually compile NISIMS output acreage values with acreages from other data sources to complete this data call.
Timeframe: Due date February 28, 2014.
Budget Impact: None
Background: At the end of fiscal year (FY) 2000, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) compiled noxious and invasive weed information to determine the acreage that included both on-the-ground inventories and estimates of invasive non-native plants on BLM lands. At the same time, the BLM began preparing data definitions for the National Invasive Species Information Management System (NISIMS), and has since completed data standards for Invasive Species Management Area; Invasive Species Survey Area; and Invasive Species Infestation Area. All data definitions comply with the North American Weed Management Association (NAWMA) data standards.
In FY 2008, Instruction Memorandum (IM) No. 2007-159 requested all field offices to submit any spatial or tabular legacy data, which included the names of the target species and the boundary of the individual infestations either in digital or manual format for the NISIMS database. In 2012, a second request for all invasive species inventory data, both paper and/or digital, was sent out for the purpose of inclusion into the NISIMS database. In FY 2013, the NISIMS database was fully deployed and the Washington Office (WO) issued IM No. 2013-074 requiring all BLM field offices to report the collection of all field inventory, treatment and monitoring data pertaining to invasive species, including any spatial or tabular invasive species data, into the NISIMS system.
Legacy data provided by states to be included in the NISIMS database includes data being available back to 2000 for BLM states and field offices responding to the data calls. These data will make available data for the Inventory update, provided data in NISIMS represents a complete report, from 2000 to the present for the species identified.
Manuals Affected: BLM Manual Section 9015- Integrated Weed Management and BLM Manual 9011- Chemical Pest Control (IPM Handbook) in future revisions.
Coordination: This IM was coordinated with National Weed Team, NOC Representatives and State Weed Coordinators.
Contact: If you have any questions regarding the data call itself, please contact Gina Ramos, Senior Weeds Specialist, at 202-912-7226, and for technical questions concerning the NISIMS data retrieval process, please contact your state GIS Coordinator.
Signed by: Authenticated by:
Edwin L. Roberson Robert M. Williams
Assistant Director Division of IRM Governance,WO-860
Renewable Resources and Planning
2 Attachments
1 - Field Office Weed Inventory Form (2 pp)
2 - Weed Inventory Form (2 pp)