Prioritization of Invasive Species Based on Impacts to Military Training and Testing Activities.

Because so many public and private agencies are involved with control and management of non-native invasive plant species, there is a need to prioritize their impacts on military training and testing activities such that limited funding to support research to mitigate these impacts can be appropriately allocated.  The most common impacts to military training and testing are issues with (1) soldier health from spines, thorns, or allergenic compounds, (2) soldier safety from obscuration of micro- and macro-landscape features during field training exercises, (3) line of sight for various weapons systems, and (4) impacts to threatened and endangered species habitats resulting from invasion by these non-native species.  This presentation will discuss matrix development whereby several non-native invasive plant species were evaluated for their impacts on military training.