Recent advances in our understanding of plant succession will provide new conceptual tools for wildland weed managers. Some of the conceptual advances should allow better linkages between the general management of wildlands and weed management specifically. For example, in the future we should be more capable of evaluating the impact of a management action on the risk of weed invasion than we have been in the past. Much of the discussion in this paper focuses on soil resource availability as a primary ecological factor in wildland weed management. Much of the research upon which this premise is based is less than 15 yr old; thus, we are in the testing stages of applying these concepts. Wider application of ecological principles to wildland weed management will require a coordinated education program and effective interaction among researchers and managers.
