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The Global Invasive Species Team | |
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WIMS 3 Background, Articles, Collaborators and Acknowledgements!
How and why did TNC develop WIMS 3?
TNC has long recognized the widespread, serious threat of invasive species to our conservation targets. Even though TNC field staff have been working for many years to manage and control weed populations, Steve Buttrick (Director of Science & Stewardship of TNC-Oregon) realized that we had no suitable method to keep track of our weed management activities, at either the site (preserve) or larger scales. By not keeping good, accessible records of our work, we could not share lessons learned from our weed inventory and control efforts, nor could we make well-informed management decisions to help prioritize and achieve on-the-ground action. Therefore, in 1999 we were motivated to create (or find) a database application that would serve our needs. Steve enlisted the help of Dan Salzer (Director or Research & Monitoring of TNC-Oregon), and together they found and acquired the use of a weed database that was initially developed by Danielle Bruno, who worked for the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Boise-Vale District in Idaho. It was the best database that we had seen at that time, and by 2000 TNC reached an agreement with BLM-Idaho and BLM-Oregon to continue development of that database. This was the beginning of WIMS 3. Since then, we have been testing and developing WIMS 3, with the programming genius of independent contractor über-programmer Barry Lavine, and staff from TNC's Oregon Field Office (super-troubleshooter Nathan Rudd), Idaho Field Office (GIS-master Jason Karl) and the Global Invasive Species Team. Articles About WIMS 3 The Nature Conservancy http://www.nature.org/success/art15416.html http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/newhampshire/news/news1571.html http://www.nature.org/magazine/summer2007/features/art20840.html USFWS Volunteer & Invasives Program http://www.refugenet.org/new-invasives/vimp.html http://www.fws.gov/invasives/volunteersTrainingModule/invasives/sup_planning.html ArcNews http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall05articles/tnc-uses.html American City & County http://americancityandcounty.com/mag/government_weed_treaters/ Creating an Invasive Species Aggregator System We are working with a consortium of the Natural Heritage Program of the state of Florida (Florida Natural Areas Inventory-FNAI), the New York Natural Heritage Program (NYNHP), The Nature Conservancy in Oregon, and NatureServe to create a simple, online, GIS-based easy-to-use invasive species maps with query and reporting capabilities. http://imapinvasives.org/ Collaborators & Acknowledgements! WIMS 3 was created and developed with the assistance of many individuals, organizations, and agencies. The following have provided either technical assistance or funding:
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Updated February 2008 ©The Nature Conservancy, 2005 |
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Acknowledgements