Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) invasive plant data aggregated by U.S. county, 2005-2018

Nonnative invasive plant species cause long-term detrimental effects on forest ecosystems, including declines in biological diversity, alterations to forest succession, and changes in nutrient, carbon, and water cycles. The damage caused by these exotic species, and the efforts to control them, are costly, even before accounting for the impacts to nonmarket economic services such as recreation and landscape aesthetics. The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program collects invasive plant data based on expert-derived lists of problematic invasive plant species defined as those of any growth form likely to cause economic or environmental harm. Using each state's most recent evaluation period between 2005 and 2018, we determined the number and percent of FIA plots invaded by non-native plant species for each U.S. county, as well as the mean number of invasive species and percent cover of invasive species on the plots inventoried for invasive species in each county. These county-level data are provided as both a shapefile and Geopackage.
These data were developed to assess the degree of invasion of U.S. forests by non-native plants for the 2020 Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment (https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/inventory/rpaa) chapter on Disturbances to Forests and Rangelands.
These data were published on 03/10/2023. Metadata updated on 10/17/2023 to include reference to published RPA Assessment.