Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** agroecosystems in the U.S. Face…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** agroecosystems in the U.S. Face major threats from invasive plants causing economic and environmental damages that are often irreversible without accurate management of the threat in a timely manner. However, few sustainable options are currently available for stakeholders to manage invasive plants effectively because many plant invasions (1) are located in remote and hazardous areas, (2) have a patchy distribution, and (3) are composed of multiple nonnative plant species. To overcome the limitations, this 3-year project develops a new IPM strategy for invasive plants by incorporating chemical control with aerial releases of natural enemy insects and native plant seeds. The goal of this project is to develop IPM tools with drone-assisted precision control of invasive plants to minimize the impact and spread of invasive plants such as mile-a-minute weeds (MAM). Two objectives of this project are optimizing precision herbicide application with drones against MAM (objective 1) and developing drone-assisted IPM tools by incorporating natural enemies and native plants (objective 2). Two major outcomes from this project are (1) field protocols for precision herbicide spray with drones and (2) aerial systems and protocols for drone-assisted precision IPM tactics to manage and prevent reinvasion of MAM and other invasive plants.