Develop weed risk assessments (wras) for about 50 of aphis-PPQ's federal noxious weeds

This Cooperative Agreement, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025), provides $202,516.00 to North Carolina State University to develop approximately 50 Weed Risk Assessments (WRAs) for APHIS-PPQ's federal noxious weeds. The assessments will analyze the ability of each species to establish, spread, and cause harm, as well as their global distribution and climate suitability, to support APHIS-PPQ's efforts to revise the 7 CFR 360 regulations and inform policy and program decisions. The award also includes a review of APHIS-PPQ's current climate-matching process to determine if any updates are needed. The project will run from August 1, 2024, to July 31, 2025.

The assessments will be used by PPQ to revise the 7 CFR § 360 regulations and to support policy and program decisions for all listed species. To accomplish this goal, the cooperator will review the literature to collect biological information on the ability of each species to establish, spread, and cause harm, as well as any information about the species' status in the united states. This information will be analyzed using PPQ's weed risk model to identify the weed risk that each species poses to the united states and any uncertainty surrounding the evidence. The cooperator will also gather information on the global distribution of the species to develop climate suitability models for each species that will be included in the risk assessments. As part of this agreement, the cooperator will also review the current climate layers and climate-matching process that PPQ uses for weeds to determine if any updates are needed. If needed, they will update the global and continental layers needed to complete the assessments. This agreement will result in about 50 weed risk assessments and a report reviewing the climate-matching process. PPQ weed experts will take an active role in this agreement by reviewing each of the wras and providing feedback prior to completion.