[APWG] EVENT: National Invasive Species Awareness Week Prevention Session Feb 29 (Washington, DC)

[Olivia Kwong]

National Invasive Species Awareness Week
Washington, D.C.
PREVENTION SESSION
February 29, 2012
8:00am - 4:00pm
Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel (NISAW Venue)

Prevention is widely regarded as the first line of defense in any 
successful invasive species management program, and traditionally 
considered the most cost efficient approach against any aquatic or 
terrestrial invader. This year, a special interdisciplinary session is 
being held during NISAW to discuss broad issues associated with the 
Prevention of Invasive Species in the United States. This session will 
explore many facets and challenges across .all taxa. and is being 
supported/sponsored by key interagency coordinating groups such as 
FICMNEW, ANSTF, and ITAP. All NISAW 2012 participants are invited to 
participate. This facilitated session will use open dialog to reflect on 
the varied aspects of prevention, with the goal of compiling and 
synthesizing new ideas and identifying new and emerging issues that can be 
used to improve our national efforts to prevent invasive species.

Facilitated Open Dialog
Session facilitators will lead participants in discussions to openly 
explore shared issues, identify common challenges, and formulate solutions 
to a number of important questions related to invasive species prevention, 
such as:

1. How can we build a better understanding of the challenges for 
implementing prevention measures that span the county, state, federal 
level for implementing prevention measures at boundaries?
2. How do we deal with Invasive Species crossing over ecosystem boundaries 
or administrative boundaries?
3. What are the technological, political, or informational gaps for 
prevention across taxonomy groups and how can we span those gaps together?
4. Should we base prevention on pathways, vectors, specific species, or a 
combination of approaches?
5. How do we develop a National Message for Prevention . Keeping things 
.cleaner. regardless of the taxonomy? How do we get that message to stick?
6. How do we deal with differences in prevention practices across 
agencies, programs, etc.? What are the different scales we need to 
address?
7. How can we create a national network to form links, partnerships, and 
information sharing?
8. What should be our strategic plan for Prevention at the state, local, 
state, and federal levels?
9. What are some of the positive or negative aspects of implementing 
prevention measures or techniques?
* What are the objectives of the prevention measure? Do we need risk 
assessments for all measures?
* Has there been testing of the technology and the measures?
* How do we test the technology and the measures? Who's responsible for 
the research or testing?
* How confident are we on these prevention measures? Does 
everything have to be science-based?
* What works, and what doesn't? Should we promote un-proven measures?
* What are the unintended consequences of implementing prevention 
measures?
* Is there a list of criteria that is used when developing/using 
prevention measures?
* What are the policy implications of requiring or implementing prevention 
measures?

Major sub-themes
Facilitators will direct the dialog to address the questions above to 
explore many challenges related to invasive species prevention, focusing 
the dialog around the following major sub-themes:
* Prevention at Various Scales
   o Local, State, Regional, National, International
   o Agency/Administrative Mandates
   o Public vs. Private
* Identifying and Filling Knowledge Gaps
   o By Taxa
   o By Approach
   o Pathways (measures and efficacy of existing measures)
* Approaches
   o Regulatory/Non-Regulatory
   o Pathway/Vectors/Species
   o Risk analysis (assessment/screening, management and communication) 
* Communication
   o Public outreach and social marketing
   o Networking within the community
* Integration and Coordination
   o Priority activities/lessons
   o Coordination across taxa, scales, and jurisdictions

Session Outcome
Using the results of this session, NISC, FICMNEW, ANSTF, and ITAP will 
collaborate to develop a summary product to help advance invasive species 
prevention activities in the United States, building upon past NISC and 
ISAC efforts related to invasive species prevention. The objective is to 
improve prevention of invasive species introductions and spread across all 
taxa, and across all ecosystems and jurisdictions.
We