Tracking Military Vehicles to Better Understand Invasive Species Spread.

The Army actively manages 6M hectares (14M acres) of which approximately 3.1M hectares (7.7M acres) are currently used for live-fire and maneuver training.   Stewardship responsibilities for these lands include the monitoring, control and prevention of spread and introduction of non-indigenous plant species (NIS).  Invasion by NIS is a global-scale problem that threatens the ecological integrity of native plant communities and ecosystems.   Military vehicles can act as dispersal agents for NIS when they are shipped or convoyed across the country from installation to installation. .   Two separate studies assessed the potential for spread of NIS at Limestone Hills Training Site, MT and Orchard Training Area, ID.  Montana Army National Guard vehicles were tracked during a week-long training exercise using a GPS Vehicle Tracking System (VTS) developed by University of Tennessee (UT).  After the training exercise, vehicles entered a specially designed wash rack which screened soil and other debris, including plant propagules.  Greenhouse and germination studies were conducted by Montana State University (MSU) on the screened debris.  MSU and UT then correlated the germination data with the tracking data to develop NIS maps.  This presentation will focus on the first study in North America to quantify and identify dispersal potential of NIS via military tactical vehicles.