Ecosystem function

Restoring natural vegetation means working in living systems full of interacting players: native species, weeds, different plant functional groups and all the ways they compete, collide and sometimes help each other. No wonder restoration sites can feel overwhelming. In this AABR Fest 2024 presentation, bush regenerator Pete Juniper cuts through that complexity with “Some Boiled [...]

Managing vegetation change under current and future conditions, a perspective from old, climatically buffered, infertile landscapes (OCBILs) in Western Australia.- Prof Stephen Hopper Australian Association of Bush Regenerators members were treated to a rare west-coast perspective when Professor Stephen Hopper AC joined our recent webinar, Managing vegetation change under current and future conditions – a [...]

Innovation in Conservation Symposium – May 10, 2024 – Ryde TAFE Topsoil translocation- 25 years- What’s been learnt? Mark Walters - Soil Translocation Specialist Topsoil from development sites is usually headed for the tip and, although it’s distressing to see bush being cleared, the silver lining can be found in saving the seed-rich topsoil. Mark [...]

AABR National Forum 2024 – The R’s of Restoration Wait and see - the benefits of time to explore resilience - Brian Bainbridge Brian has worked in ecological restoration since the mid 1990s. For over twenty years Brian worked with the community-based not for profit organisation - Merri Creek Management Committee and over the past [...]

Damien Cook, ecologist and co-founder of the Wetland Revival Trust (WRT)  outlines the project planning process the WRT are using to implement their goals outlined in the Blueprint for Action which include Ensuring restoration is based on sound science and practical knowledge: Embedding the National Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration in their work processes [...]

Heroes of the Big Scrub is an inspiring story of landscape scale restoration. The video showcases the people who understood the processes of rainforest restoration ecology, and have dedicated their life's work to enabling substantial recovery of the Big Scrub against all odds. The video looks at the role of assisted natural regeneration and revegetation [...]

The Q & A session of the Innovations in the Chemical Management of Vertebrate Pests webinar addressed the following questions from the audience. Q & A Timecodes 00:00 – 01:50 Might the lack of native plant recruitment after vertebrate pest control in sclerophyll veg communities be related to whether the soils are original or not? [...]

The following questions were posed to Dr Tony Parkes at the AABR AGM held 19/2/22. 00:25 Why don’t we value the Big scrub and when do you think it will change? 02:45 Is this work being done elsewhere in the world…The Science Saving Rainforests? 04:45 In the genome project are the species limited to those [...]

Big Scrub Landcare are now driving an innovative program to ensure that all plantings use genetically diverse planting stock to overcome potential inbreeding and build greater adaptability to climate change within the landscape. Dr Tony Parkes (AO) - retired organic chemist and merchant banker (turned rainforest restorer) - is the Founder and President of Big [...]

Dr Tein McDonald provides the background to the upcoming AABR Video on Heroes of Big Scrub Recovery and sets the scene for Tony Parkes talk on the Big Scrub Landcare's (BSL) Science Saving Rainforest project. Big Scrub was a once a 75,000 ha swathe of subtropical rainforest on the volcanic soils of the north coast [...]