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Barry Rice, Invasives Species Specialist

I work to help abate the threats posed by alien invasive species. These organisms--plants, animals, and pathogens--pose the second greatest threat to biodiversity around the world. They can prey upon, compete with, or displace native species. They can even completely transform environments by changing ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, hydrology, or fire regimes. These threats, unaddressed, stand between us and The Nature Conservancy's 2015 organizational goal, and risk undoing those conservation successes we have made to date. While daunting, invasive species should not be thought of as overwhelming. Instead, the severity of the situation demands strategy and planning in order for our efforts to be successful.

I am the Communications Manager for The Nature Conservancy's Global Invasive Species Team. The Team's job is to encourage the best practices we can to most affectively abate the threats posed by invasives. We work first and foremost within The Nature Conservancy, but we of course work closely with partner organizations. Dealing with invasives means you must think outside borders, either organizational or political! In order to ensure that invasive species do not prevent achievement of TNC's 2015 goal, the Global Invasive Species Team will work to accomplish two primary goals:

Prevent invasions and the spread of invaders at the national and international scale--this brings the biggest bang for the buck when dealing with new or potential invaders.
Help build the capacity of The Conservancy's Regions, country and state programs to assess, prevent, rapidly detect and control priority invasive species threats to conservation targets and ecosystems.

I operate as the Team's communications manager. I maintain the Team's "practitioner" web site (that is, the one you are currently reading!) and have recently taken on the responsibility of keeping our content on nature.org and the intranet fresh and relevant. I am also developing marketing materials such as brochures that will be useful for philanthropy and fund raising. I also handle all the incoming inquiries to The Conservancy about invasive species issues. If I don't know the answer to something, I probably know who does!

If you have any communication needs or suggestions, contact me and I will help--I am your first point of contact within the Team.

Barry Rice, Ph.D.
TNC Global Invasive Species Team
Department of Plant Sciences
Mail Stop 4 -- Robbins Hall
University of California
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616-8780 USA

State & country programs
Profiles of noteworthy invasive species work being done by state and country programs in The Nature Conservancy.

Success stories
Invasive species management is not impossible. Read these success stories and be inspired.

Assessments and regional plans
Assessments of invasive species issues for various operating units in The Nature Conservancy.

1998-99 survey
Learn about our 1999 survey--a snapshot of invasive species issues across all of The Nature Conservancy.

Other site resources

Weed Information Management System (WIMS)
A fully-integrated hardware and software application for mapping invasives and tracking management actions.

Remote sensing
A review of remote sensing technology, as applied to invasive species detection and mapping.

Templates and examples
Adaptive management planning tools such as model plans for sites, weed control templates, etc. Very useful!

Invasive species learning networks
Learn about Invasive Species Networks that help promote best practices for invasive species abatement among staff in The Nature Conservancy, partner agencies, and other organizations.

Listserves
Join our listserve to voice your frustrations and trumpet your successes.