Weeds Across Borders 2006 Conference
 © Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Buffelgrass is a robust African grass that has been widely introduced in Sonora for cattle forage. It has colonized highway right-of-ways and invaded natural Sonoran Desert vegetation. Native trees and succulents without fire adaptations are decimated by buffelgrass fires. |
 The public is increasingly aware of the threats of non-native species to precious natural vegetation. Volunteers for Sonoran Desert Weedwackers pull buffelgrass in the Tucson Mountains in Arizona. |
History
The U. S. Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds (FICMNEW) with the support of the U. S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has worked in many ways to raise awareness of the ecological and economic damage caused by invasive species in North America. Considering that highways are one of the most common dispersal corridors for non-native plants, the FHWA has a broad interest in them. The first Weeds Across Borders Conference was at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson Arizona in 2002 with participants from Mexico, Canada, and the United States. FICMNEW was a strong supporter of the conference, and its members from the major federal agencies gave informative presentations. Participants learned of buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) invading the scenic paloverde-saguaro in the Sonoran Desert, Lehmann lovegrass (Eragrostis lehmanniana) in desert grasslands, and visited a large APHIS inspection facility on the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales on a field trip. Weeds Across Borders 2004 held in Minneapolis was another important meeting, which reinforced international cooperation and highlighted the interesting and exciting efforts to control and manage non-native species in Minnesota and northern temperate North America. Visits to biological control sites on the field trip were especially informative.
Today
In 2006, Weeds Across Borders will be held in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico to continue to raise awareness of the ecological and economic damage caused by invasive species in North America. Continued continental cooperation across traditional boundaries will encourage the prevention and control of non-native plants. Scientists, practitioners, and policy makers from natural resource, agriculture, and transportation agencies and non-governmental organizations and societies at local, state, and federal levels from Mexico, the United States, and Canada will share information, experiences, control and management methods, and work together to combat exotic plants that cross borders. There will be no concurrent sessions but ample opportunity for additional presentations through posters. Contributed papers will be published in a special peer reviewed issue of the Boletín de la Sociedad Botánica de México.
Themes
- Applied research on prevention, control, and management of invasive plants
- (NEW) Ecological restoration success after weed control
- Best management practices so far
- North American Invasive DATABASE Status
- Examples of cross border partnerships
- Fire and Invasive Species
- Public involvement and invasive species
- Agriculture, livestock and horticulture and invasive species
- WHAT NEXT?