Doubling Knowledge on Fire and Eastern Invasive Plants in the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS)

Managers have been coming to the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) for reviews of scientific knowledge about fire effects since 1986. Prior to this project, FEIS provided relatively little coverage of invasive plant species in the eastern United States: In 2008, the system contained 52 species reviews of eastern invasive plants covering 69 taxa. The system now contains 105 reviews of eastern invasive plants covering 139 taxa. Thus the project has doubled the information in FEIS on eastern invasive plants. In fact, the information has more than doubled, since the numbers above do not include updates of 5 reviews, addition of 2 Research Project Summaries, and addition of 1 Management Project Summary. This project has also described and quantified knowledge gaps regarding eastern invasive species and fire, and has delivered information on fire and eastern invasive plants to managers through presentations and training sessions in the eastern United States and at national venues. The 58 species reviews and 3 Research/Management summaries published in FEIS for this project gather and synthesize information on individual plant species, especially regarding • how invasive plant species may respond to fire and thus influence native plant communities • how wildfire, fire suppression activities, and fire exclusion may influence plant invasions and site invasibility • how invasive plants may alter fuels and fire regime characteristics • how fire may increase invasions and invasibility or be used to reduce them • knowledge gaps and limitations of existing knowledge on these topic