Alien Plants Ranking System (APRS) Implementation Team

The Alien Plants Ranking System (APRS) is a computer-implemented system to help land managers make difficult decisions concerning invasive nonnative plants. The management of invasive plants is difficult, expensive, and requires a long-term commitment. Therefore, land managers must focus their limited resources, targeting the species that cause major impacts or threats to resources within their management, or the species that impede attainment of management goals. APRS provides an analytical tool to separate the innocuous species from the invasive ones (typically around 10% of the nonnative species). APRS not only helps identify those species that currently impact a site, but also those that have a high potential do so in the future. Finally, the system addresses the feasibility of control of each species, enabling the manager to weigh the costs of control against the level of impact. This system has been developed and tested primarily in grassland and prairie parks in the central United States.