APHIS Posts New Weed Risk Assessments

APHIS Posts New Weed Risk Assessments

 

APHIS’ Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) has posted Weed Risk Assessments (WRA) for the following five weed species:

• Apera spica-venti (common windgrass)
• Chondrilla juncea (rush skeletonweed)
• Phalaris brachystachys (short-spike canary grass)
• Phalaris paradoxa (awned canary grass)
• Philydrum lanuginosum (woolly frogs mouth)

The purpose of a WRA is to evaluate the likelihood that a weed species will escape, naturalize, and spread in the United States, and harm U.S. natural and agricultural resources. PPQ prepares a WRA when:

• A species shows some threat potential in the United States or abroad,
• Someone requests to import a species that is either new to the United States, or if present, not widely distributed and poses a potential threat; or
• A stakeholder submits a request to APHIS to add a species to the Federal Noxious Weed List.

Stakeholders can use WRA's to support their own management or policy decisions as needed. To view or print these or other assessments, visit APHIS’ Noxious Weeds Program Risk Assessments Web page. We welcome your questions or comments about the WRA's via email at weeds@aphis.usda.gov.