Distinct Roles of Surveys, Inventories, and Monitoring in Adaptive Weed Management1

Abstract

Ambiguity exists in the use of the terms “survey,” “inventory,” and “monitoring” as related to adaptive weed management. Misunderstanding can lead to poor planning and inefficient use of limited budgets. Adaptive weed management includes developing an objective-based weed management plan, implementing the plan, monitoring to measure progress toward objectives, evaluating the plan or practices, making any necessary adjustments, and then repeating the cycle. Monitoring involves the repeated collection and analysis of site-specific data to evaluate progress toward management objectives. Surveys and inventories are field searches to determine the location and relative abundance of weeds on a landscape scale. Surveys are representative samples of an overall weed population, whereas inventories attempt to account for all weed infestations or individual plants within a specified area. Weed surveys and inventories are as basic to preserving land health as medical exams are to maintaining human health, and weed maps are as vital to land managers as X-rays are to medical professionals. Weed surveys are especially critical for success in early detection and rapid response. Area-wide weed surveys or inventories should be conducted as part of planning long-term weed management strategies and control tactics. Attempts to survey and monitor weeds simultaneously can result in data ill suited to the objectives.Additional index words: Definitions, invasive, inventory, monitoring, survey.