iMapInvasives: An Online Database to Track Invasive Species

The topics we'll discuss today highlight what invasive species are, what iMapInvasives is and why it exists, and how this unique online platform can be used by park maintenance staff as a way to contribute valuable information for use in prioritizing future management efforts.

Note: This  ArcGIS StoryMap  will be made available to all registered attendees after the completion of today's webinar training.

Before we delve into our main topic of iMapInvasives, let's start with the basic premise of why iMapInvasives exists: to map invasive species.

In their natural range, species of plants, animals, and insects are limited by factors that keep them in balance with the rest of nature. These factors can include pests, herbivores, or diseases. However, when introduced into an area where these limitations are absent, some species can become invasive and the biodiverse plant and wildlife communities that have evolved in a particular region over a long period of time can be destroyed.

Definition: An invasive species is any animal, plant, insect, or disease that is non-native to an area AND is known to cause harm to the environment, economy, or human health.

Many invasive species (plants in particular) promote habitat loss, meaning natural areas that offer little to no food to wildlife (because invasive plants do not support the insects that are the basis of the food webs that support the animal diversity in our wildlife). Habitat loss can also refer to the area itself where plants and animals live, meaning the area becomes inhabitable to wildlife for various reasons.

In a park setting, invasive plants may look like any other greenery that you see growing. However, it's important to learn how to identify both common and early detection invasive species in order to manage them. Note: Please refer to the  webinar training  hosted by the PA Natural Heritage Program for the PA Park Maintenance Institute on March 24, 2021 to learn more about several common and early detection invasive species in Pennsylvania.

Very often, invasive species can blend in with "native" nature, looking like any other plant, animal, or insect that should be present in our natural landscapes. However, to the trained ecological eye, it's quite obvious that certain species do not belong.

Can you identify the invasive species in the following photos?

And the answer is...

 Oriental bittersweet  (Celastrus orbiculatus)

This invasive vine is able to girdle and kill trees or break their branches off from the weight of the vines. When it grows in the canopy, it can shade out important native plants. Oriental bittersweet has also been shown to hybridize with the American bittersweet (native), leading to a loss of genetic identify.

And the answer is...

 Chinese bushclover  (Lespedeza cuneata)

Chinese bushclover poses the greatest threat to open areas such as meadows, prairies, open woodlands, wetland borders, and fields. Once established, it out-competes and displaces native plants, forms extensive monocultures, and develops an extensive seed back in the soil, ensuring its long residence at a site. Its high tannin content makes it unpalatable to livestock and most native wildlife.

And the answer is...

 Autumn olive  (Elaeagnus umbellata)

This shrub/tree threatens native ecosystems by out-competing and displacing native plant species, creating dense shade and interfering with natural plant succession and nutrient cycling.

A common look-alike is Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), another species considered to be invasive.

The invasive species in this photo cannot be seen at this vantage point; however, take a close look at the type of trees visible in this forest (i.e., hemlock trees).

And the answer is...

 Hemlock woolly adelgid  (HWA)

This tiny aphid-like insect forms white woolly masses on the underside of hemlock tree branches (Eastern hemlock and Carolina hemlock). By feeding on the sap from hemlock twigs, the HWA causes needle loss and branch dieback, often leading to tree stress and and oftentimes the death of a tree.

The loss of Eastern hemlock trees (Pennsylvania's state tree) in our forests causes the water temperature of nearby streams to rise, impacting native fish and other wildlife species that require colder water temperatures.

Now that we know a little bit more about invasive species and the harm they cause, let's delve into the topic of iMapInvasives...

 iMapInvasives  is an online GIS-based reporting and data management tool used to track invasive species. This platform requires that users sign up for a free login account. (Details on how to obtain a login account will be provided later in this training.)

The goal of the program is to assist natural resource professionals and citizen scientists by advancing their knowledge of species distributions and to provide a tool which stores both location and management details.

The impetus for the creation of iMapInvasives came when the  New York State Department of Environmental Conservation  (NYS DEC) approached the  New York Natural Heritage Program  (NYNHP) in 2005/2006 and asked if they would manage an all-taxa, GIS-based state invasive species database. A similar database,  EDDMapS , was, at the time, not GIS-based, plants-only, point data-only, and not interested in implementing  GIS  or polygon-drawing technology. Another similar database,  USGS NAS , tracked only aquatic data and was not for citizen science use. Therefore, work began to develop the original iMapInvasives online GIS-based information system. In 2010, iMapInvasives was officially created.

The original funders of the iMapInvasives program included the  New York Natural Heritage Program ,  The Nature Conservancy in Oregon , and an annual fee paid by each of the early participating jurisdictions which included New York, Florida, Virginia, Oregon, and Arizona.

Created for use at the national level, several organizations currently participate in the iMapInvasives program, each representing a particular state or province (jurisdiction). The following list comprises the current iMapInvasives network and the jurisdictions they represent:

•  Arizona Game and Fish Department  (AZ)
•  Maine Natural Areas Program  (ME)
•  New York Natural Heritage Program  (NY)
•  Oregon Biodiversity Information Center, Institute for Natural Resources, Portland State University  (OR)
•  Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program  (PA)
•  Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre  (SK)

Note: Currently, each host organization of a participating iMapInvasives jurisdiction is a member of the  NatureServe network , though this is not a requirement.

Invasive species data can be mapped in any state or province in North America, even if a particular jurisdiction is not an active participant in the iMapInvasives network. However, not all iMapInvasives functions will be available in a non-participating jurisdiction. Also, data in a non-participating jurisdiction is not being actively managed or reviewed.

Each participating jurisdiction has the responsibility to manage the invasive species data reported in their state/province AND collaborate with registered users to ensure the proper use and understanding of the iMapInvasives program. For example, jurisdictional administrators will often host instructional webinars or other training events, create user documentation, and host jurisdiction-specific iMapInvasives websites, all in an effort to better communicate the tools and benefits available from iMapInvasives.

In Pennsylvania, the  PAiMapinvasives.org website  is available for registered users to visit for more information about our state-specific program.

The iMapInvasives program welcomes other states and provinces to join the network as participating jurisdictions. Learn more about joining the network by visiting the " Become Part of the Network " page on  iMapInvasives.org .

Since 2018, iMapInvasives has been powered by  NatureServe , an organization that provides scientific information with the goal of streamlining effective conservation action.

The developers at NatureServe are constantly hard at work creating new functionality in iMapInvasives and fixing any problems that get reported by the jurisdictional administrators. Recent developments by NatureServe have created tools in iMapInvasives such as the "Area Treated Report (which calculates the total treated area for species in a geographical area over a specified time frame), simplified the record confirmation process, and provided the ability to add other map layers directly in iMapInvasives for advanced viewing and understanding of invasive species data.

The  Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program  is the NatureServe network program in charge of administering the iMapInvasives program in the state of Pennsylvania. (Note: Natural Heritage Programs exist in all U.S. states, Canadian provinces, and in much of Latin America.) The purpose of the Natural Heritage Program in Pennsylvania is to provide current, reliable, objective, ecological data and analysis to help guide conservation work and land-use planning.

The Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program (PNHP) is a partnership between the  Western Pennsylvania Conservancy  and multiple state agencies: the  Department of Conservation and Natural Resources  (DCNR), the  Fish and Boat Commission  (PFBC), and the  Game Commission  (PGC). The PNHP operates in cooperation with the  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  (USFWS) and is a member of  NatureServe , the international network of heritage programs.

Preparations for starting the iMapInvasives program in Pennsylvania began in 2009 when the  Pennsylvania Invasive Species Management Plan  was first created by the  Governor's Invasive Species Council . One of the objectives listed in the Plan specified the need to "Develop a statewide invasive species database clearinghouse or information sharing system linking data from various state, federal, and non-governmental entities". Jeff Wagner, Director of the PNHP, thought that if PNHP became a jurisdictional member in the iMapInvasives program, this objective could be achieved over time.

Note: To date, a centralized invasive species clearinghouse has not yet been decided on for the state of Pennsylvania, though discussions are underway.

From 2008-2010, the  Mid-Atlantic Panel on Aquatic Invasive Species  provided "seed money" to the PNHP from the USFWS to begin the process of forming an iMapInvasives program in Pennsylvania. Later, in 2013, funding from the  Great Lakes Restoration Initiative  (GLRI) allowed PNHP to officially join the iMapInvasives network.

The Pennsylvania iMapInvasives program is currently funded through 2022 by grant money provided from the GLRI.

The Pennsylvania iMapInvasives program strives to engage with a broad and diverse audience of people who are actively involved or interested in invasive species efforts. We do this in a variety of ways:

• Quarterly newsletter: For six years, the Pennsylvania iMapInvasives program has created a  quarterly newsletter  highlighting people and events focused on invasive species issues, important findings, and control efforts. If you'd like to contribute a story to the Pennsylvania iMapInvasives newsletter,  please contact us . Note: Stories featured in our quarterly newsletters are later included on our website as blog posts.

• Be an Early Detector brochure: In 2017, staff from the iMapInvasives and Pennsylvania Natural Heritage programs created a brochure titled " Be an Early Detector: Protect Pennsylvania from these Emerging Invasive Species ". This brochure highlights 12 species considered high priority or early detection species in Pennsylvania. The goal of creating this brochure was to raise awareness of these less-common species and to encourage people to search for and report their findings of these and other invasive species to iMapInvasives.

• Unique training events: Staff from the Pennsylvania iMapInvasives program encourage use of the iMapInvasives online database and mobile app to log findings of invasive species by hosting unique training events including the " Water Chestnut Chasers Challenge " and the " Invasive Species Scavenger Hunt ", among others. Each of these events encourage users to search for one or more specific invasive species and report their presence and absence findings to iMapInvasives. At the end of each month-long event, winners are awarded prizes as a way to reward participation and to encourage future use of this online platform.

When you report your findings of invasive species to iMapInvasives, you are helping natural resource professionals, researchers and professors in academia, and citizen scientists know where particular invasive species have been found in the state.

Data gathered in iMapInvasives is used in a variety of ways. For example, natural resource professionals can prioritize areas to survey for invasive species based on reports submitted in the database. Using modeling software, those in academia can predict where invasive species will be found in the future.

There are many other examples of how data from iMapInvasives is being utilized. Bottom line: Any data you contribute to iMapInvasives will be beneficial to many different efforts!

All data submitted to iMapInvasives (either through the mobile app or online) are automatically marked as "unconfirmed" upon submittal. Photographs of observed species are reviewed by experts with proficiency in identifying specific plants, animals and/or insects. This QC process is coordinated by the Pennsylvania iMapInvasives administrator(s).

In addition to expert review, all unconfirmed records are checked for mapping accuracy to ensure that terrestrial species are mapped on land, aquatic species are mapped in water, etc. Additionally, iMapInvasives administrators in Pennsylvania ensure that species mapped incorrectly (such as in a parking lot, on a road, or on top of a building) are marked as approximate to indicate the mapped location by the observer is not exact.

For certain high priority invasive species such as the  spotted lanternfly  (Lycorma delicatula) or  Asian longhorned beetle  (Anoplophora glabripennis), reports can be submitted to iMapInvasives. Pennsylvania iMapInvasives administrators ensure any reports for these species are submitted ASAP to the appropriate regulatory agency.

For example, findings of spotted lanternfly anywhere in Pennsylvania are reported to the  Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's online reporting tool . Additionally, any findings of Asian longhorned beetle (or evidence of its presence in an area) would be reported to the  USDA APHIS's online reporting tool .

Note: No observations for Asian longhorned beetle have ever been reported to the Pennsylvania iMapInvasives database, and to date, Asian longhorned beetle is not known to exist in the state of Pennsylvania.

There are many benefits of using iMapInvasives by those involved in park maintenance:

• Supervisory staff interested in managing invasive plant species within their park(s) can use iMapInvasives to learn what, if any, species have already been reported there. If little to no information exists, iMapInvasives can be used as a central hub for data collection of species found. Once data is in iMapInvasives, other park maintenance staff and officials can easily view this information and prioritize control efforts (e.g., manage invasive plants found along trail edges to reduce accidental spread by hikers).

• Supervisory staff interested in knowing where management efforts are occurring within a specific park (or parks) can do so simply by logging into iMapInvasives.

• Park staff interested in knowing if invasive species management is proving successful can easily view change over time of treatment polygons within iMapInvasives (i.e., the areas being treated should steadily be shrinking year after year for consecutive years of treatment).

• iMapInvasives is a state-based (and province-based) initiative that strives to contribute to the larger picture of understanding largescale invasive species distributions and knowing where management efforts are being conducted to minimize their spread. By providing information to iMapInvasives, park staff and supervisors can know they are contributing to an important initiative.

• Park staff interested in staying informed of invasive species reports in their park can sign up for iMapInvasives email alerts. (More on email alerts below.)

Several data entry options exist to report findings of invasive species to iMapInvasives.

•  Presence  = What did you find?
•  Not-Detected  = What didn't you find?
•  Treatment  = What species did you control, and how?
•  Searched Area  = Where did you look?

• Point
• Line
• Polygon

Many registered users of iMapInvasives enjoy using the iMapInvasives mobile app to report findings of invasive species while outside, away from a computer. An internet connection isn't needed to create a data record using the mobile app, and creating a record takes only a few minutes to do.

Using the mobile app, both presence and not-detected point data can be created. (Note: Treatment data and polygons cannot be created using the iMapInvasives mobile app.)

 NatureServe  recently developed a comprehensive form for entering presence, not-detected, and treatment records into iMapInvasives using  Esri's Survey123 app . This mobile app is designed for natural resource professionals and citizen scientists to capture data while out in the field.

With the Survey123 app, registered users of iMapInvasives can report invasive species observations as points, lines, and polygons using their mobile device's GPS, even if disconnected from the Internet. Note: The iMapInvasives mobile app can only capture point data.

The power of the Survey123 app lies in its ability to easily record survey and treatment efforts while in the field and load this information into iMapInvasives shortly after collecting it. Previously, iMapInvasives did not offer a way to capture polygon-based information, but with the release of the Survey123 app, this functionality is now available to all.

Example: In New York, the iMapInvasives Survey123 app was used by a pesticide applicator contracted to conduct knotweed control. The applicator needed to quickly capture Presence, Not-Detected, and Treatment polygons (around 100 records total) as part of the job. The Survey123 app was ideal to collect this information since the regular iMapInvasives mobile app is unable to collect polygon or treatment data.

For more information on how to download and begin using the Survey123 app, please view our  Setup Guide .

If you'd like to contribute data iMapInvasives via the online platform or the iMapInvasives mobile app, OR if you'd like to view data in iMapInvasives, you'll need to request a free registered user account.

Instructions:

1. Visit  iMapInvasives.org  or  PAiMapInvasives.org .
2. Click the Login button at the top of either page.
3. Sign up for a free iMapInvasives user account using the provided form.
4. Confirm your new account in an email sent by NatureServe.

iMapInvasives provides the ability to create customized email alerts that allow users to be notified quickly when reports for certain species are reported to the database.

For example, a natural resource professional interested in knowing if  wavyleaf basketgrass  (Oplismenus undulatifolius) is reported anywhere in Pennsylvania can set up a custom email alert that would trigger on this criteria. Or, if a park supervisor wanted to know when an invasive species (of any taxa) was reported within their park's property boundary, he/she could set up an alert that would trigger on this criteria.

The possibilities and customization of email alerts is broad and far-reaching, making this component of iMapInvasives incredibly useful to natural resource professionals and engaged citizen scientists. To begin setting up email alerts in your iMapInvasives account, click on "Your Email Alerts" on the main iMapInvasives menu after logging into the database.

Retrieving data from iMapInvasives is quick and easy.

Use the "Filter Records" tool to query for multiple categories of data including:

• Observer Name
• Species
• Habitat Type
• Kingdom
• Genus
• Observation Date
• Organization
• Project
• Jurisdiction (state/province)

Users can look up specific presence, not-detected, treatment, and searched area records by using the "Find Record" tool.

The "Identify/Measure" tool is a handy resource to view record details of a group of records on the map. It can also be used to measure the distance between different locations.

Confirmed information in the iMapInvasives platform is accessible and downloadable to anyone with a registered account (10,000 record maximum). To begin downloading data, filter for the specific data you are interested in using the "Filter Records" tool, turn on the appropriate map layers, and then use the "Export/Report" option to download the data.

Note: This feature of iMapInvasives allows information to be easily shared with others without needing to formally request data from the database administrator.

iMapInvasives offers several reports that assist users in data analysis:

• Approaching Region
• Area Treated
• Infested Area
• Species List by Geography

For example, a natural resource manager working in Prince Gallitzin Park could use the "Approaching Region" report to learn of invasive species not presently found within the park, but that are located in a specified buffer surrounding the park. This information could assist park managers in knowing what invasive species to be looking for in case they would arrive in the park some day.

The "Species List by Geography" is another popular type of report that allows users to quickly view all species that have been reported within a county, waterbody, specific park, etc.

The following video describes how to enter a PRESENCE RECORD using the online version of iMapInvasives (accessible from a desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile device).

The following video describes how to enter a NOT-DETECTED RECORD using the online version of iMapInvasives (accessible from a desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile device).

The following video describes how to create CUSTOMIZED REPORTS in iMapInvasives to better understand information provided in the database. Reports types include 1) Approaching region, 2) Area treated, 3) Infested area, and 4) Species list by geography.

This video shows jurisdictional administrators of the iMapInvasives network discussing various components of the iMapInvasives program. Discussion questions were pre-submitted by registered users of iMapInvasives.

If time allows, we'll use this time to conduct a live demonstration of tools available in iMapInvasives.

This ArcGIS StoryMap was created and is being maintained by the  Western Pennsylvania Conservancy  (WPC) and the  Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program  (PNHP).

Please contact  Amy Jewitt  or  Mary Walsh  with questions or comments about this StoryMap.