Weed Inventory/Mapping Update

United States Department of the Interior

 

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT

Arizona State Office

One North Central Avenue, Suite 800

Phoenix, Arizona  85004-4427

 

February 14, 2014

In Reply Refer To:

9015 (9320) P

 

EMS TRANSMISSION 02/18/2014

Instruction Memorandum No. AZ-2014-007

Expires:  9/30/2015     EXPIRED

 

To: District Managers and Field Managers

   Attention:  Weeds Program Leads

 

From: State Director

 

Subject: Weed Inventory/Mapping Update DD: 2/25/2014

 

Purpose:  Weed population information, compiled by the State, will be incorporated into the updated Vegetation Treatments Environmental Impact Statement and provided to the Department of the Interior, Congress, Federal, State and County agencies.

 

Policy/Action:  Each Field Office is asked to provide the most recent accurate weed inventory data (post 2000) using the attached form (Attachment 1).  The form includes a list of non-native invasive plant species that has been identified and verified by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Weed Team for inclusion in this data call.  Field personnel can provide additional weed species inventory data collected in their Field Office for species not listed on the form by adding additional lines to the form.

 

In reporting the data for each species, there are four types of data to consider:  net infested inventoried acres, gross infested inventoried acres or gross infested estimated acres, and location.  Each Field Office should report any existing information from previous or current on-the- ground inventories.  Attachment 2 provides definitions associated with the gathering of the data, along with instructions to fill out the form.  It is extremely important for the Field Offices to spend the necessary time compiling the information and reporting it as accurately as possible to ensure the information presented represents the extent of invasive plant species found on lands the BLM administers.

 

Process and Guidelines:

For those Field Offices that have fully implemented the National Invasive Species Information Management System (NISIMS) and have all of their current and legacy (from 2001 and later) infestation data in the database, the person completing the form should go to the NISIMS SharePoint site where directions for using the NISIMS data retrieval tool is outlined.  This tool will output all the necessary acreage summaries required for this data call.  All legacy infestation data that was submitted to the Washington Office (WO) in accordance with the three previous Instruction Memorandums (IM) have been incorporated into the NISIMS database, and should be available for completing the data call using the NISIMS data retrieval tool.

 

If only partial or incomplete infestation data was submitted during the identified data calls, and/or if current infestation data is not being captured using NISIMS, the Field Office can use the NISIMS data retrieval tool to extract acreage summaries from the NISIMS database, but will also have to manually compile NISIMS output acreage values with acreages from other data sources to complete this data call.

 

Timeframe:  Due February 25, 2014.

 

Budget Impact:  None.

 

Background:  At the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2000, the BLM compiled noxious and invasive weed information to determine the acreage that included both on-the-ground inventories and estimates of invasive non-native plants on BLM lands.  At the same time, the BLM began preparing data definitions for the NISIMS, and has since completed data standards for Invasive Species Management Area; Invasive Species Survey Area; and Invasive Species Infestation Area.  All data definitions comply with the North American Weed Management Association data standards.

 

In FY 2008, IM No. 2007-159 requested all Field Offices to submit any spatial or tabular legacy data, which included the names of the target species and the boundary of the individual infestations either in digital or manual format for the NISIMS database.  In FY 2012, a second request for all invasive species inventory data, both paper and/or digital, was sent out for the purpose of inclusion into the NISIMS database.  In FY 2013, the NISIMS database was fully deployed and the Washington Office (WO) issued IM No. 2013-074 requiring all Field Offices to report the collection of all field inventories, treatment and monitoring data pertaining to invasive species, including any spatial or tabular invasive species data, into the NISIMS system.

 

Legacy data provided by States to be included in the NISIMS database includes data being available back to 2000 for State and Field Offices responding to the data calls.  These data will make available data for the inventory update, provided data in NISIMS represents a complete report, from 2000 to the present for the species identified.

 

Directives Affected:  The BLM Manual Section 9015, Integrated Weed Management, and BLM Manual 9011, Chemical Pest Control (IPM Handbook), in future revisions.

 

Coordination:  This IM was coordinated with the Renewable Resources and Planning Branch, Resources Division, in the Arizona State Office.

 

Contact:  If you have any questions regarding this data call, please contact Lisa Soo, Invasive and Noxious Weeds Program Coordinator, at 602-417-9242, and for technical questions concerning the NISIMS data retrieval process, please contact Dave Wilson, State GIS Coordinator, at 602-417-9327.

 

SIGNED BY:

Gera Ashton

for Raymond Suazo
 

AUTHENTICATED BY:

Susan Williams

Staff Assistant

 

2 Attachments:

1 - Field Office Weed Inventory Form (4 pp)

2 - Field Office Weed Inventory Instructions (2 pp)