WSSA-NAISF Invasive Species Forum Connects 200-Plus Participants
11 June 2025, Colorado: The Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) recently co-hosted the virtual 2025 North American Invasive Species Forum (NAISF) with the U.S. Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds (FICMNEW) in collaboration with indigenous groups and partners in Canada and Mexico. The forum was convened May 13-16, with the theme: Shared Borders, Shared Opportunities.
“The speakers and topics were ideal for connecting participants and generating solutions to effectively manage invasive weed species across interconnected regions and borders,” says Hilary Sandler, Ph.D., and WSSA president. “Participants represented a wide range of invasive species policy, management, and research affiliations who were able to share both challenges and success stories.”
Built on two-decades-plus collaboration, this free, online forum highlighted new invasive weed species collaborative opportunities, research, emerging issues, and prevention and response initiatives across the continent and among international neighbors. This year’s forum focused on seven important topics: engagement in international frameworks, cross-border biosecurity, e-commerce of invasive species, risk management, early detection and rapid response, citizen and community science, and the nexus of invasive species and wildfires.
Among other invasive weed challenges, according to the USDA, “invasive species have contributed to the decline of 42% of U.S. endangered and threatened species, and for 18% of U.S. endangered or threatened species, invasives are the main cause of their decline.”
Information exchange provided by the NAISF framework helped facilitate organizational capacities to address the threat of invasive species on governmental and private lands and to share innovative and effective ways to work across boundaries with these shared goals. “The 2025 Forum highlighted the importance of invasive species data sharing, institutional relationships and communication, and we look forward to working with our partners to continue the dialog and plan for the 2027 NAISF in Canada,” noted Seth Flanigan, Bureau of Land Management, and Christine Taliga, Natural Resources Conservation Service, FICMNEW co-chairs, in a written statement.
Conducting the event online also enabled excellent participation from diverse groups, said Eric Gustafson, who facilitated the event for WSSA. “I am glad WSSA was able to support the Forum in pivoting from a planned, in-person event to a fully representative virtual event,” he added. “I think this bodes well for the future of the event, and for the future of cooperation between FICMNEW and WSSA.”
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