Research

Fire brings more light into forests, which is crucial for young oak tree growth, but many land managers are concerned about how non-native plants affect fire intensity and young tree survival rates. A 2026 study from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers found that conducting more prescribed burns in forests with invasive grasses creates conditions that benefit young oak trees.

Many U.S. forests are privately owned, which makes control of invasive plants and pests challenging because efforts must be coordinated across landowners. New research from the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics explores how differences in land owner motivation affect willingness to control invasives and how economic incentives can be implemented most efficiently.

From forests to wetlands, Illinois researchers are exploring invasive plant populations, new surveillance technology, and improved control methods. 

Rivers split across mountaintops and other geographic barriers may flow only a few miles from one another, but to the aquatic creatures in those waters, the separation could represent millions of years of evolutionary time. In the U.S. Geological Survey’s Non-Indigenous Aquatic Species database, these so-called “native transplant” fish are almost twice as common as fish introduced from outside the country. But a new University of Illinois review says native transplant fish, especially those that don’t qualify as game fish, are rarely studied and their impacts are poorly understood.

According to University of Illinois agricultural ecologist Adam Davis, many cost estimates for cleaning up unwanted, invasive plants are just that: estimates, extrapolated via desktop analysis from relatively scant data. Unsatisfied with that, Davis suffered hornet attacks and years of backbreaking labor to arrive at real dollars and cents associated with removal of escaped Miscanthus plants.