public read Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative

705 Spear StreetSouth BurlingtonVermont05403United States of America

(802) 656-0683femc@uvm.eduwww.uvm.edu/femcForest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) leadNYC Department of Environmental Conservation The State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and ForestrypartnerFollowing the methods of Rockefeller (2016), we computed a transfer risk potential per invasive species per trailhead. For each trailhead, we computed the total number of visitors per town by summing the group size in origin data by town and trail register. Using these data, we computed a trail-town exposure score: the amount of potential exposure per species to each trailhead per town. We computed this score by multiplying the species’ total number of observations per town and the number of visitors per town. From these values, we computed a raw total exposure potential per species per trailhead by summing the trail-town exposure score across all towns. We log-transformed the raw total exposure score due to its skewed distribution and then normalized these values based on a pooled distribution of the scores across all trailheads. This resulted in transfer risk potential score per species per trailhead. It can be interpreted as the relative risk of that invasive plant species being inadvertently transported to that location.Forest Ecosystem Monitoring CooperativeAlexandraKosibaprincipalInvestigatorJamesDuncancontentProviderEmmaTaitcontentProviderColinBeiercontentProviderJustinPerrycontentProviderMatthiasSirchcontentProviderThe Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) collaborated with Dr. Colin Beier (SUNY-ESF) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to expand on the work by Rockefeller (2016) and Larkin (2017) to examine the risk of invasive plant propagule transport by visitors to trailheads in the Adirondack Park, NY. The Adirondack Park contains over 300 trailheads, each usually has a parking area for visitors and a trail register for each party to record their location of origin. As visitors may travel from areas outside the Park, there is a risk that visitors could unwillingly transport invasive plants on boot treads, dog fur, or clothing that could become established in the Park. While this work only includes visitor data from 2012, it provides valuable information on the possible travel routes, hotspots, and vulnerabilities in invasive plant management in the park. Additionally, summary information on visitor use and travel distances can help with resource allocation and planning.Invasive plant transfer risk scoresFollowing the methods of Rockefeller (2016), we computed a transfer risk potential per invasive species per trailhead. For each trailhead, we computed the total number of visitors per town by summing the group size in origin data by town and trail register. Using these data, we computed a trail-town exposure score: the amount of potential exposure per species to each trailhead per town. We computed this score by multiplying the species’ total number of observations per town and the number of visitors per town. From these values, we computed a raw total exposure potential per species per trailhead by summing the trail-town exposure score across all towns. We log-transformed the raw total exposure score due to its skewed distribution and then normalized these values based on a pooled distribution of the scores across all trailheads. This resulted in transfer risk potential score per species per trailhead. It can be interpreted as the relative risk of that invasive plant species being inadvertently transported to that location.VMC.1627.3230mySQL/femc/data/archive/project/adktrailheads/dataset/invasive-plant-transfer-risk-scores2019-08-012020-01-31SpeciesCommonNameSpeciesCommonNameThe primary common name of the species from the invasive species tabletextSpeciesLogScoreSpeciesLogScoreLog normalized raw total exposure potential per species per trailheaddecimalmeternaturalSpeciesNormalizedScoreSpeciesNormalizedScoreNormalized species log score based on a pooled distribution of the scores across all trail headsdecimalmeternaturalSpeciesScientificNameSpeciesScientificNameThe primary scientific name of the species from the invasive species tabletextTrailNameTrailNameFull trail name from the trail destinations tabletext