PRIORITY INVASIVES

Invasive Species Prioritization Tiers

The New York State Invasive Species Program has put in place a tiered ranking system for invasive species, to provide strategic management recommendations and prioritization assistance for partners and the public. WNY PRISM conducts comprehensive reviews of species tier rankings on a biennial basis, with the assistance of our partners and working groups, while also conducting periodic reviews as new information emerges. If you would like to be part of WNY PRISM’s Terrestrial and Aquatic Working Groups, to assist with this effort, please email us at wnyprism@buffalostate.edu.

Tier rankings are selected based on several criteria, primarily species presence and distribution within a designated area, in this case the WNY PRISM Region, and manageability. The system is scalable, so while the WNY PRISM rankings consider the entire 8-county geography that makes up the WNY PRISM Region, property managers can easily assign tiers to species based on their own site. For example, a species may be Tier 3 on a WNY PRISM level, but if that species is only present in small numbers that allow for site eradication to be feasible, it may be a Tier 2 species, and higher priority for you.

WNY PRISM Tier Rankings (groups in alphabetical order by common name) – updated October 2024

WNY PRISM Tier Rankings (groups in alphabetical order by scientific name) – updated October 2024

NYS Invasive Species Tier Ranking Chart

In addition to tier rankings, WNY PRISM maintains priority species lists for approaching region/watchlist (Tier 1) and early detection (Tier 2) species, to further assist with prioritizing management efforts. WNY PRISM also selects a rotating list of four species on which to focus survey efforts on within a given year, to improve presence and distribution data within iMapInvasives. We refer to these as our ‘data gap’ species.

WNY PRISM Species Priorities 2025

Approaching Region Priorities