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Across the Pacific, wildfire poses a major threat to biological and cultural resources, and the threat is only predicted to become larger with climate change. In this talk, graduate students Kevin Faccenda and Kelsey Brock discuss a new tool and methodology for predicting the fire risk of invasive species before they enter a region so that management efforts can be focused on the highest risk incipient species.

This tool uses data collected from the primary literature as well as a machine learning model trained on expert survey data to predict fire risk. Their team examined this risk in a spatial context by modeling the distribution of multiple invasive plants and climatic conditions that promote wildfire across the main Hawaiian Islands. Models were created based on current-day climate conditions as well potential conditions at the end of the century to under climate change.

Provides a collation of best available research literature, research gaps, and a summary of published researchfor wildland fire and invasive species issues. NISC staff searched Google Scholar, USGS publications warehouse, USDA, FS TreeSearch, and AGRICOLA using keywords “invasive species”, “invasive species and fire”, “invasive species and wildfire” from 2000 to 2024. Most of the existing research explores the relationship between invasive plants, particularly grass species, and wildfire risk, fire regimes, impacts to native plant communities, and loss of wildlife habitats. These are living documents and will be updated on a regular basis.

This state-of-knowledge review of information on relationships between wildland fire and nonnative invasive plants can assist fire managers and other land managers concerned with prevention, detection, and eradication or control of nonnative invasive plants. The 16 chapters in this volume synthesize ecological and botanical principles regarding relationships between wildland fire and nonnative invasive plants, identify the nonnative invasive species currently of greatest concern in major bioregions of the United States, and describe emerging fire-invasive issues in each bioregion and throughout the nation. This volume can help increase understanding of plant invasions and fire and can be used in fire management and ecosystem-based management planning.