Since 1985, CEMML has provided high-quality environmental consulting services on public and federal lands across the U.S., its territories, and overseas.
We offer effective and environmentally sound solutions for controlling invasive species and developing/implementing biosecurity procedures. Such measures improve habitats, reduce erosion, help conserve sensitive species, and support other land management objectives.
Areas of Expertise
- Strategic Management Planning: Invasive species management through targeted baseline surveying, mapping, and treatment aligned with client-specific goals.
- Habitat Quality Control & Stabilization: Habitat improvement through vegetation management, erosion control, and soil stabilization.
- Threatened and Endangered Species (TES) Impact Reduction: Management and monitoring of invasive plants and animals that have negative impacts on TES.
- Early Detection Surveys (EDS): Systematic search or monitoring processes aimed at identifying new invasive species populations and eradicating them before they can cause significant environmental harm.
- Rapid Response & Interdiction: Specialized deployment-ready teams trained to conduct swift containment and eradication actions.
- Biosecurity Inspections: Rigorous inspections of cargo, vehicles, and equipment to prevent the movement of biological material, soil, and organisms.
- Programmatic Risk Analysis: Regular assessments of invasive species pathways to determine potential mitigation risks.
- Barrier Maintenance & Control Programs: Physical infrastructure and targeted control measures—including baiting, trapping, and habitat management—designed to protect sensitive areas and species.
Examples of CEMML Project Work
- Guam: We develop quality assurance and biosanitation procedures to verify that incoming cargo is free of biological materials and invasive species such as brown tree snake, little fire ant, and coconut rhinoceros beetle. When detections occur, our rapid response protocols contain and eradicate these species, preventing new incursions and protecting native ecosystems.
- Western United States: We provide strategic invasive species management through targeted surveying, mapping, and treatments, prioritizing early detection and rapid response. Our invasive plant management efforts on federal lands are tailored to land managers’ needs, such as habitat improvement, soil and water conservation, wildfire risk reduction, and conservation of protected wildlife. Invasive species we commonly control include annual grasses such as cheatgrass and red brome; broadleaf weeds such as knapweeds, Canada thistle, leafy spurge and yellow starthistle; and woody invasives such as tamarisk and Russian olive. We also control invasive animals such as the American bullfrog, which threatens listed species like the California tiger salamander and arroyo toad. Notably, we recently identified the first known occurrence of small-flowered honesty (Savigna parviflora) in North America, a species native to North Africa and the Middle East. Management and monitoring efforts aim to eliminate it as a threat to the habitat of native animals such as the Mojave fringe–toed lizard and the desert tortoise.
- Hawaiʻi: We provide monitoring and control of over 40 target incipient and established invasive plant species. We also monitor and control invasive animals including feral goats, sheep, cats, and dogs; black rats; mice; mongoose; and various invertebrates such as ants, aphids, and scales. We construct, monitor, and maintain ungulate exclusion fence units that protect sensitive species and native habitat. Biosecurity activities include inspecting machinery, vehicles and construction materials for soil that could be carrying weed propagules, Argentine ants, little red fire ants and other organisms; and applying sanitation protocols.
Email Invasive Species and Biosecurity Services inquiries to [email protected].
Other CEMML Natural Resources Management Services
Latest CEMML Stories
From wilderness guide to environmental specialist: How CEMML’s early-career program helped one intern find her path
After early job experiences as a wilderness guide and ski instructor, Ellery McCaw came into CEMML’s Early-Career Development Program expecting just a part-time internship. What she found was a platform to gain career insights and build on technical skills. She left the program confident that the critical administrative and procedural skills she acquired will help her advance her career ambitions.
Community partnerships drive conservation success at Bellows Air Force Station
For Emma Beard, a CEMML natural resource specialist based at Bellows Air Force Station in Hawai’i, the work is all about sustainability – ecologically, culturally, and operationally. To achieve that, it takes a whole community. Beard regularly brings together service members, educators, community leaders and volunteers all in the name of an island-wide conservation effort.
It started with a single map: How wetland delineation is becoming a pillar in CEMML’s $10M Air Force GIS program
It began as just another mapping project, albeit a challenging one, for CEMML’s GIS Team to map the boundaries of wetland areas at Patrick Space Force Base in Florida. Little did the team know that their efforts would result in the creation of a new model for wetland delineation across the military’s vast network of land.
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