Evaluating post-treatment outcomes following invasive species management efforts is a critical component in understanding efficacy, yet these data are often collected at limited spatial scales, are underreported, decentralized, and may be difficult to access. As a result, outcomes of invasive species treatments and management effectiveness, especially at larger scales, are largely hidden from broader audiences, including practitioners for whom this information is most valuable. In this study, we present a novel process for leveraging data from centralized geospatial databases to efficiently evaluate management efforts at a regional scale. Using the wealth of data aggregated in New York State’s iMapInvasives database as a case study, post-treatment data were identified, organized into management sites, and then analyzed to determine outcomes of treatment. Results from the processing of more than 7,000 management sites show that 68% lack sufficient post-treatment monitoring data to assign an outcome for the treatment, raising concerns about the ability to evaluate management efforts even where large volumes of treatment data are available. However, where post-treatment data were available, 66% of sites showed progress towards suppression of the target invasive population. These findings are a novel description of regional invasive species treatment outcomes in New York State, but importantly, this evaluation process can be broadly applied in other regions to leverage the invasive species data compiled in GIS databases by organizations, governmental agencies, and the public. With continued modification and increased adoption of this evaluative process, invasive species managers can track project progress, identify best practices, and more easily share outcomes with peers in the field, thus ultimately improving all management efforts.
