Invasive species can be damaging to ecosystems and economies. When new species are detected, the best defence is rapid response. However, deciding how best to jump into action can be overwhelming, which can lead to delays.

To address this, we developed PVAInvas, an online tool designed to simulate the potential growth of a species, evaluate how the population would respond to different management actions, which can be evaluated based on three metrics: probability of extirpation, final abundance, and total control cost.

Take some time to get to know PVAInvas to see if it’s right for you. I you have questions, feel free to reach out to the Fisheries Management Lab.

Protected areas like National Parks have a dual mandate to protect natural areas and to provide educate the public, generally through access to these wild areas. However, when risk of aquatic invasive species spread to National Parks is posed by visitors who may inadvertently carry these species with them (e.g., invasive mussel veligers), decisions to restrict access must be made. These potential restrictions may anger visitors (or the residents that rely on visitors as guided clients) or may squeeze remaining visitors to the lakes that have fewer restrictions.

This simulation is the outcome of discrete choice experiments delivered to visitors and residents of Jasper National Park, Canada to understand how they choose among lakes with different amenities. This simulation shows how visitors (aggregate number of visitors and residents) distribute among lakes in Jasper if you choose to restrict access to certain lakes. This is an important tool in spatial management for Jasper and serves as an example for other areas.