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activities. Strategies that directly engage learners, either through active participation
or involvement in discussion, have been shown to work better than unidirectional or
rote-learning approaches for increasing knowledge (DiEnno and Hilton 2005 ).
Jordan et al. ( 2011 ) found participation in a 3-day program that included exotic
invasive plant education and data gathering led to an increase in knowledge but not
to a change in reported behavior toward invasive plants. Crall et al. ( 2013 ) fo und
higher levels of content knowledge among persons who had attended an 8-hour
training program conducted by the National Institute for Invasive Species Science,
as well as signifi cant changes in intended behavior regarding invasive species, but
they were not able to measure whether there were actual changes in behavior. This
sugge sts that to achieve the ultimate goal of increasing management actions, careful
attention must be paid to audience and curriculum design. Two such curricula have
been created as part of the Ecologically-Based Invasive Plant Management (EBIPM)
program , instituted by the USDA Agricultural Research Service to provide science-
based solutions to annual grass invasions. EBIPM has held fi eld schools at research
and demonstration sites throughout the Great Basin since 2009 (Call et al. 2012 ).
These events are held on ranches as well as public lands and are designed to help
participants directly observe the effects of different management strategies.
Add itional educational opportunities include workshops and both onsite and virtual
fi eld tours. Participants have created high school and university curricula that may
be found online at http://www.ebipm.org/.
The university curriculum (Kartchner 2013 ) offers an example of how an educa-
tion program can be structured when direct engagement is not always feasible.
EBIPM offers a decision-making framework for landowners and managers; there-
fore, the curri culum covers each of the decision steps in separate modules (Table
14.1 ) that include a synoptic reading, case studies, in-class and fi eld activities,
review questions, additional resources, and a PowerPoint presentation. The modular
curriculum was developed with collaborators who included plant ecologists, weed
scientists, social scientists, economists, range managers, and media developers. As
of this writing, implementation of the curriculum had on ly just begun, so there was
not yet any opportunit y to assess its effectiveness.
14.5 Management Implications
The studies reviewed in this chapter focus on the potential to mobilize members of
the public in ongoing efforts to support agencies’ monitoring, control, and restora-
tion practices for exotic invasive species and to stimulate active citizen participation
in management activities on public lands or their own properties. Most of this
research focuses on exotic forb (herbaceous broadleaf) species that are more visible
to the public and often more easily controlled. Although exotic annual grass control
can be more diffi cult in some respects, reducing the extent and impact of Bromus
invasion is an especially important issue for citizens as well as land managers
M.W. Brunson and H. Kartchner