Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Ecosystem Restoration Activity 6

Activity Description: Funding for invasive species detection, prevention, and eradication, including conducting research and providing resources to facilitate detection of invasive species at points of entry and awarding grants for eradication of invasive species on Federal and non-Federal lands. The USGS will provide science to support:

• The USGS is working closely with other DOI Bureaus and Offices to provide institutional architecture to support implementation of the National Early Detection and Rapid Response (EDRR) Framework. Developing and implementing an eDNA-based species detection and assessment framework and a National EDRR Information System will help DOI and other Federal, State, Tribal, and local resource management agencies reduce the impacts of invasive species and these projects are partnerships between multiple Federal, State, and Local entities. The National EDRR Information System project will be the central hub of a National EDRR Framework and will:
  • Be a support network, communication hub and community of practice for researchers, managers, and other decision-makers. It will be a single source for invasive species data standardization, collection, integration, and long-term data storage where customized data dashboards are accessible to resource managers for repeatable analyses and dynamic information delivery.
  • Identify invasion hotspots through the National Horizon Scan project that directs and coordinates management efforts.
  • Display spatial predictions and tabular summaries of habitat suitability of invasive plants across the contiguous U.S. using the USGS Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT).
• The Hawaiian Forest Bird Extinction Prevention project will investigate the use of vector controls to manage invasive mosquitos.  This project is a partnership between USGS, the National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the DOI Office of Native Hawaiian Relations; the DOI Office of Policy Analysis, Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Birds Not Mosquitoes (multi-agency coordinating group), The Nature Conservancy, and the American Bird Conservancy and contributes to the goals in the Revised Recovery Plan for Hawaiian Forest Birds and DOI Strategy for Preventing Extinction of Hawaiian Forest Birds. The USGS is working with the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo to recruit research staff to provide capacity for field and lab research to support development of next-generation synthetic biology tools for control of invasive mosquitoes that vector avian malaria.