Invasive Plant Technologies From Research to Application: Invasion and Military Effects.

The often intense nature of military disturbance regimes may provide ample opportunities for invasive plant species to invade and dominate native plant communities.  This invasion can result in lost training opportunities for the Army if sensitive ecological communities are threatened or training land resources (i.e. soils and water) are degraded. 

Research efforts are directed towards understanding the role of military unique anthropogenic and fire regime interactions in defining plant community structure on training lands.  Analysis of over a decade’s worth of long-term ecological plot data and extended field experimentation at Ft. Pickett, Virginia, have examined these regimes in order to understand their impacts and develop practical field management solutions.  This is of specific importance to Army land managers with large areas of land to manage and limited resources and constraints on management alternatives.  In addition to field research, knowledge gained from past efforts is being integrated into invasive plant management technologies that address Army specific natural resource management scenarios. This effort currently consists of developing military specific fact sheets for 20 important invasive plant species. The goal is to incorporate military unique considerations into off-the-shelf government and university extension orientated materials.