CN-770000-16074-TA 01003.pdf

Multi-Year Project Request

Date: April 24, 2018

Project Title: Maintenance of the Florida Invasive Species Partnership websites and Support of EDDMapS Florida

Contact Information:

Charles T. Bargeron IV The University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health 2360 Rainwater Road Tifton, GA 31794 Phone: (229) 386-3298 Fax: (229) 386-3352 Cell: (229) 402-0412

Need for Research/Outreach Cooperative Invasive Species Management Areas (CISMAs) foster development of local partnerships among federal, state, and local governmental agencies, tribes, individuals, and other interested groups to manage invasive non-native species in a defined geographic area addressing both public and private lands. The CISMA approach results in efforts that work across boundaries, pool limited resources and similar priorities, and create a unity of voice that propels the issue of invasive non-native species to the forefront of the public’s sight as well as improves efficiency and effectiveness in management.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is a member of the Florida Invasive Species Partnership (FISP), which is a multi-agency group of 11 federal, state, local and non-government organizations. The mission of FISP is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of preventing and controlling invasive non-native species through partnering to increase communication, coordination and use of shared resources in order to protect wildlife habitat, working agricultural and forest lands, natural communities and biodiversity in Florida. FISP has three main goals:

1. Encourage voluntary partnerships to increase effectiveness and decrease costs of comprehensive invasive species management;

2. Encourage the development, implementation and sharing of new and/or innovative approaches to address the threat of invasive species; and,

3. Provide tools and resources that enable the development of unified approaches, bridging the gap between private landowners and land management agency invasive species efforts.

In line with these goals, FISP has been instrumental in the expansion of Cooperative Invasive Species Management Areas (CISMAs) in Florida and in providing updated invasive species incentive program information to private landowners. To date, 17 CISMAs are established, covering 97.6% of Florida.

CISMAs are partnerships to manage invasive species in geographically defined areas of Florida. FISP supports CISMA development with monthly webinars, website and work plan guidance, strategic and organizational plan templates, and an annual CISMA session at the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council Symposium where experiences are shared.

The FISP Landowner Assistance Database, provided on the FISP website www.FloridaInvasives.org, connects Florida landowners and land managers with financial and technical support from agencies and http://www.floridainvasives.org/ organizations. Information about cost-sharing programs, grants and/or technical assistance helps private and public land managers with resource management and helps complement control efforts across boundaries.

A website presence for FISP, CISMAs and the Landowner Assistance Database, all housed at www.FloridaInvasives.org, is critical to achieving FISP goals. The University of Georgia (UGA), a FISP partner, has developed and maintained www.FloridaInvasives.org to date. This request is to support the FISP website, which includes hosting the other 16 CISMA websites and the Landowner Assistance Database for 4 years.

EDDMapS was designed to provide a more accurate picture of the distribution of invasive species.

EDDMapS allows land managers, agencies and others to set priorities for early detection and rapid response (EDRR), as well as formulate overall invasive plant management action plans. It is a tool to develop more complete local, state and regional level distribution data of invasive species, identify “leading edge” ranges of new invasive threats, provide a means of implementing EDRR, and help corroborate threats and refine invasive species lists and management priorities. EDDMapS started in Florida and Florida continues to be one of its largest users.

Methods

The Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health at The University of Georgia hosts and maintains 40+ websites for both Center projects and external groups. The Center has the experience and expertise to maintain the FISP and CISMA websites, and keep them updated in a timely manner.

Specific tasks include:

Host and update www.FloridaInvasives.org website. (Approximately 100 hours)

Maintain EDDMapS Florida (Approximately 200 hours) o Add invasive animal data from FWC o Add new species as requested o Update IveGot1 smartphone app to support new operating systems o Maintain and update taxonomy of species as needed

Host the Florida Private Landowner Incentive Programs database on the FISP website (Approximately 20 hours)

Host and update CISMA web sites on www.FloridaInvasives.org website. (Approximately 130 hours)

Work with FWC to improve EDDMapS Florida to meet their needs (Approximately 62 hours)

Share invasive plant data with Florida Natural Areas Inventory and University of South Florida Herbarium (Approximately 40 hours)

Deliverables

All progress on specific tasks and number of website user will be submitted on December 15, 2018

Data analysis of EDDMapS and websites and completion of each task will be submitted on June 14, The FISP website (www.floridainvasives.org)

The 16 CISMA websites

Statistics on traffic to these websites http://www.floridainvasives.org/ http://www.floridainvasives.org/ http://www.floridainvasives.org/

Schedule

July-Sept 2018 Oct-Dec 2018 Jan-Mar 2019 Apr-June 2019

Updates to websites as needed

X X X X

Reports submitted to FWC X X

Budget

$10,759.18: Salary and benefits – equivalent to 250 hours at $14.60/hour and 22% Fringe a year for a web design professional at UGA ($3650 salary and $803 fringe) and equivalent to 302 hours at $15.94/hour and 31% Fringe a year for a web programmer at UGA ($4813.88 salary and $1492.30 fringe)

$1075.92: University overhead costs at 10% Total Annual Budget request: $11,835.10

Future years:

$11,833.89 per year for 2 additional years for a total request over 4 years of $47,340.40