Alternatives

Invasive Plants Case Study

After formally defining the project objectives and delving into the complex relationships of the overall problem, it is time to talk realistically about the alternatives at hand. This discussion leads the team to decide that they will use this project as a planning exercise, to help them narrow down their alternatives and allow them to look more closely at the risk involved with each option.

The team discusses various activities or actions that reasonably could be included in their preferred alternatives. Some of these actions include:

• Focused herbicide application;
• Manual removal of Japanese Stilt grass;
• Create new recreational trails;
• Close all trails;
• Open the canopy on different slopes and elevations for wildlife (e.g. wildlife openings);
• Consider different widths of road corridors;
• Or any combination of the above.

The team discusses these activities and actions and agrees upon a limited set of alternatives to analyze in their risk analysis:

• Do nothing
• Control the spread of Japanese Stilt grass
• Eradicate Japanese Stilt grass

After some discussion, the group confirms that this CRAFT project will first identify areas of high risk for the invasive of Japanese Stilt grass within the watershed, thus helping to prioritize actions. The next step would be to evaluate the feasibility and the probability of success of each alternative within the watershed using belief networks.