Title: The runaway weed: costs and failures of Phragmites australis management in the USA
Abstract: While public funding of invasive species management has increased substantially in the past decade, there have been few cross-institutional assessments of management programs. We assessed management of Phragmites australis, a problematic invader of coastal habitats, through a cross-institutional economic survey of 285 land managers from US public and private conservation organizations. We found that from 2005 to 2009, these organizations spent >$4.6 million per year on P. australis management, and that 94% used herbicide to treat a total area of ∼80,000 ha. Despite these high expenditures, few organizations accomplished their management objectives. There was no relationship between resources invested in management and management success, and those organizations that endorsed a particular objective were no more likely to achieve it. Our results question the efficacy of current P. australis management strategies and call for future monitoring of biological management outcomes. [Laura J. Martin & Bernd Blossey (2013). The runaway weed: costs and failures of Phragmites australis management in the USA. Estuaries and Coasts, 36(3), 626-632] ${imageDescription} Comment