Research
PNW
Funded Projects
2001
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PNW Project Overview 2001
Developing a Long-term Spartina Control Strategy Using the Landscape Management System
Principal
Investigator:
Dr.
Miranda Wecker, Olympic Natural Resources Center, University of
Washington,
Awarded: $50,000
Project
Description:
The Washington Legislature declared the Spartina
infestation an environmental emergency in 1995 and instructed
state agencies to work together aggressively to solve the
problem. After six years of work and millions of dollars of
expense, the weed is spreading faster than interagency crews can
control it. During
the past year, ONRC staff created a GIS-based tool specifically
to support long-term Spartina control planning.
This tool integrates all available datasets on Willapa
Bay resources with a model projecting the future spread of the
weed. ONRC staff
are ready to test this new tool in order to: demonstrate its
use, improve its utility and reliability, and evaluate whether
management decisions are influenced by the presence of such
tools. It can only
be fully tested in the context of a decision-making process.
The Landscape Management System (LMS) – a rational
iterative decision making process supported by GIS tools – is
now being applied to forest ecosystems where multiple
participants, numerous objectives and diverse values complicate
long-term decision-making.
This tested and formalized decision-making process
appears well suited for application to the equally complex
problem of eradication of the invasive weed Spartina.
ONRC staff will demonstrate and test the suitability of
the LMS decision process for formulation alternate long-term
strategies to eradicate Spartina alterniflora in Willapa
Bay. This project
will test the hypothesis that the Landscape Management System is
well suited for developing plausible pragmatic, long-range,
multi-criteria strategies for the eradication of the invasive
weed Spartina.
Project Status:
2001
funds will be distributed to projects in September 2001.