Natural regeneration

Weed affected bushland will need help to recover after fire, but resources are usually limited, and it's difficult to predict exactly what will happen over time. How can you make the most of your time and effort? This is an overview of post-fire site assessment. It’s a complex topic, particularly considering the extreme drought [...]

How can we help the bush to recover after fire? The native plants usually have the capacity to regenerate (unless the damage is particularly severe), but where weeds are involved, they probably need assistance. With the right approach, we can make a big difference. Here is an intro to post fire weed control, with [...]

Does size matter? Victoria Park Nature Reserve is a small fragment of the once mighty Big Scrub sub-tropical rainforest. Reflecting on 40 years of monitoring, Tein McDonald highlights the significant contributions to the understanding of rainforest succession that this reserve has made. Monitoring of Camphor laurel removal using species composition surveys and photopoints, clearly demonstrates [...]

Tein McDonald provides a detailed explanation of the concept of ecological restoration as intended by the National Standards for Ecological Restoration. Tein outlines the restorative activities continuum and provides examples of where various restoration projects may reside along that spectrum. Ideologies such as ‘restorative thinking’ and ‘ecological civilization’ are considered within the context of the [...]

The Koorangie Marshes are part of the Kerang Wetlands Ramsar site that is culturally significant to the Barapa Barapa people. Prolonged waterlogging and rising salinity, which resulted in the death of River Red Gum and Eumong canopies, had historically impacted almost half of the Koorangie marshes. In partnership with the Barapa Barapa peoples the regeneration [...]

Restoring native vegetation cover on an island dominated by Kikuyu and Coastal Morning Glory poses unique challenges, especially when the island provides critical seabird breeding habitat. The Five Islands Nature Reserve is a culturally significant site and the success of the restoration project has been due to the project bringing together the Illawarra Local Aboriginal [...]

Todd explores the concept of ecocentricity and how it provides an ethical and social framework for both restoration and our relationship to the environment. An outline of the social, and individual benefits that have been produced on the Skyline tier project exemplifies how a changed worldview can unite a community. Todd, along with Michael Leunig [...]

The Popes Glen Bushcare Group utilise strong monitoring regimes and the process of adaptive management to inform the treatment of Willows, Privet, Pine trees and Ranunculus groundcover. By careful observation of the impact of their works they have become adept at reinforcing positive outcomes and considering the recovery trajectory of the site to ensure the [...]

Stormwater flows along the first kilometre of urban streams requires energy and nutrient loads to be managed effectively to ensure the downstream integrity of the riparian systems can be maintained. The Popes Glen Bushcare Group, with the support of the Blue Mountains Council have explored and implemented a variety of highly successful soft-engineering strategies to [...]

Ziggy Marzinelli shares the world of underwater kelp forest recovery. A 70km aquatic restoration project was designed to reinstate Sydney’s Phyllospora comosa - Crayweed forests, a valuable recreational fishing asset as well as a key component of the kelp forest underwater ecosystem. Ziggy’s project successfully reintroduced the missing ecosystem component. In doing so he reinstated [...]