WORKING TOGETHER TO TACKLE INVASIVE SPECIES ISSUES IN A
Changing Southeast
The RISCC Network once again had a strong presence at the 2025 North American Invasive Species Management Association (NAISMA) Annual Conference in Lake Tahoe on November 3-6, where we organized a special session on climate resilience and invasive species and led an interactive workshop on scenario planning. The conference provided an important forum for bringing together practitioners, scientists, and resource managers from across the RISCC community — including the Southeast, Northeast, North Central, Northwest, Pacific Islands, and Canadian regions — to share insights and strengthen collaboration across the international RISCC network.
A one-hour Climate Session at NAISMA included talks from members of Northeast RISCC, Pacific RISCC, and Southeast RISCC:
Forecasting for Range-Shifting Forest Pests in the Northeastern United States in a Changing Environment
Deah Lieurance, Assistant Professor, Penn State University, Northeast RISCC
Assessing Species at High Risk of Invasion in the Southeastern United States in Current and Near-Future Climate Scenarios
Cayla Morningstar, Research Coordinator, University of Florida, Southeast RISCC
Using Scenario Planning as a Tool for Invasive Species Adaptation in a Changing World
Elliott Parsons, Specialist, Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Pacific RISCC
Cayla Morningstar (upper left), Deah Lieurance (upper right), and Elliott Parsons (bottom) speaking at the RISCC Climate Session of NAISMA.
This 2-hour workshop was led by Specialist Elliott Parsons of Pacific RISCC and Assistant Professor Deah Lieurance of Northeast RISCC. Members from the Southeast, North Central, and Pacific RISCCs were scenario facilitators, as well as partners from the Pacific Drought Knowledge Exchange, Penn State University, and the Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council.
Pictured: RISCC members and partners who led/facilitated the workshop. From left to right, Nate Hofford, Mason Russo, Alanna Richman, Deah Lieurance, Cayla Morningstar, Ryan Longman, Elliott Parsons, & Harmony Yomai.
The workshop featured 39 attendees from 16 different states, Mexico, and Canada (Figure 1). Among the attendees, 49% identified as academic, 34% as local/state/federal government, and 17% as private/public or other. There was a variety of experience among attendees with 52% having worked with invasive species for 0-5 years and 48% for 5-10+ years. Most of the attendees (87%) use climate planning in their invasive species work, with more than half (54%) of that group noting that they do so less than they would like.
Figure 1. Locations of participants that attended the Strategic Scenario Planning Workshop.
Participants broke into small discussion groups based on four major climate-related disturbances that can spread invasive species: Hurricanes, Shifting Temperatures & Rainfall, Wildfire, and Flooding. Additionally, each disturbance featured a fictional invasive species created for this workshop based on real species that might spread as a result of the disturbance (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Fictional species invented and designed by Elliott Parsons and Deah Lieurance to be used by small groups for scenario planning.
Participants applied a Scenario Planning Approach, which was designed for this workshop (Figure 3) to guide their group’s discussions, going through each of the four steps to plan for two likely outcomes of their invader species’ impacts:
1) Identify the problem & two likely outcomes
2) List management interventions
3) Prioritize actions
4) List challenges and indicators of success.
Figure 3. Scenario Planning Approach Created by Deah Lieurance & Elliott Parsons.
Poll of participants' familiarity with Scenario Planning before the workshop.
A poll showed that all participants found the workshop useful for their work.
Poll of participants' familiarity with Scenario Planning after the workshop.
A poll showed that 89% of participants' understanding of how the four climate scenarios impact invasive species increased after the Scenario Planning Workshop.
Workshop participants and non-participant conference attendees expressed interest in the results of the workshop. A one-page report will be compiled and shared with the interested parties, as well as hosted on the RISCC website.
Cayla Morningstar, SE RISCC Research Coordinator, University of Florida
Elliott Parsons, PI RISCC Specialist, Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Deah Lieurance, Assistant Professor, Penn State University, Northeast RISCC
Eva M Colberg, Coordinator, Northwest RISCC
Nate Hofford, Project Manager, North Central RISCC
Thank you to our partners for helping to facilitate this workshop and for your collaboration with the International RISCC network.
Mason Russo, Research and Projects Coordinator, Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council
Alanna Richman, PhD student, Penn State University
Ryan Longman, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, PICASC Consortium Prog. Director, Pacific Drought Knowledge Exchange Co-Lead
Harmony Yomai, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa CAP & PDKE Fellow.
And a thank you as well to NAISMA for putting on the annual conference where the workshop took place, and for providing the venue, room, and workshop supplies.
