The ‘cure’ for maintaining the health of our human populations from COVID‐19 has been halting social functioning, which is unravelling economic systems and damaging the livelihoods of many people. There will be winners and losers, and social institutions and economies may take long timeframes to recover. Indeed, they may not be the same again. This is not dissimilar to the ecological consequences of

Operation Crayweed focuses on the restoration of underwater forests that disappeared from the coastline of Sydney, Australia’s largest city, 40 years previously. We show how a combination of science, hands‐on restoration, community engagement and art has helped the project to reach its goals as well as raise awareness about the importance of underwater kelp forests that are experiencing global decline

Fire is an important ecological process that shapes vegetation structure and habitat for faunal assemblages globally. Prescribed burns are increasingly being used in conservation and management to restore fire regimes in fire‐suppressed vegetation communities. Small threatened macropods require structurally complex habitat that allows them to evade detection by predators. Given that fire can alter

Feral European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera ) has been identified as a potential nest competitor for Australian hollow nesting species, but few studies have investigated the impact of feral honey bee competition on Threatened species. Our study used data from Glossy Black‐cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus ) nests on Kangaroo Island, monitored and managed over an 11‐year period, and found

Coarse woody debris (CWD) has many benefits in restoration, including protecting seedlings from herbivory, and it is often reintroduced where CWD is depauperate. At Calperum Station on the Murray River floodplain, artificially applied CWD (‘branching’) is being trialled to restore erosion scalds. At two erosion scalds, we applied 900 m2 of branching and created a 900 m2 branching‐free control. We predicted

Volunteer labour is often used for planting native seedlings for revegetation projects. The survival of such plantings is seldom monitored and reported. The overall survival of seedlings at three years of age was assessed for eight years of plantings established by nearly 15,000 volunteers in the Lower Cotter River catchment in the Australian Capital Territory. Mean survival was 66.8% across all years

Habitat preferences need to be understood if species are to be adequately managed or conserved. Habitat preferences are presumed to reflect requirements for food, shelter and breeding, as well as interactions with predators and competitors. However, one or more of these requirements may dominate. Tree‐cavity‐dependent wildlife species are one example where shelter or breeding site requirements may

It is generally assumed that population supplementation will improve the genetic diversity of the recipient populations. However, the genetic outcomes of supplementations are rarely tested. We used population modelling to predict how the supplementation programme in a translocated Woylie (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi ) population influences their genetic makeup. Our model projections were then compared

Nest boxes have grown in popularity as a habitat management tool in Australia during the last decade. This management use remains contentious because some studies suggest nest boxes are ineffective. There are three recent contentions: (i) nest boxes mostly benefit common species, (ii) exotic species may be dominant users of nest boxes, and (iii) species of conservation concern use nest boxes infrequently

Appropriate fire management strategies are needed to protect forests and large old ecologically and culturally significant trees in natural landscapes. The aim of this study was to determine the age of large old and relic trees of cultural significance that included Cypress Pine (Callitris columellaris F. Muell.), a species that is sensitive to crown scorching fires in a fire‐prone landscape, and to

Measuring and monitoring population size and growth are critical to assessing the progress and ultimately the success (or failure) of a reintroduction. The Woylie (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi ) is one of Australia's threatened critical weight range mammals. To increase the species' area of occupancy, extent of occurrence, number of sub‐populations and global population size, in addition to creating

Australia already has the highest rate of species loss of any region in the world, yet the risks suddenly worsened in the spring–summer of 2019–20, with an unprecedented chain of wildfires covering 10 M ha of the nation’s forest and woodland estate. Fires of this scale were unprecedented and not factored into recovery plans for Threatened Species or ecosystem management in general. EMR asks one of

The aspiration of EMR is to help bridge the gap between science and practice; and the feature articles that are (uniquely for any journal) published in each issue of EMR play an important role in that aspiration. It is no surprise then, that the mechanisms we decided to use to celebrate the journal’s 20 years of publication was to compile a virtual issue that republishes over 20 feature articles representing

Islands hold a special place in Australia’s conservation landscape. We do not tend to think of Australia as a meta‐archipelago; however, Australia holds stewardship over more islands than the Caribbean Archipelago and New Zealand combined. Islands play an important role in Australia’s conservation landscape not only for their own unique ecosystems but also as safe havens for translocated species that

Inspired by the success of restoration efforts in the adjacent Piccaninnie Ponds Karst Wetlands Ramsar site, the local community was anxious for progress to address observed changes to the hydrology of Long Swamp, near Nelson, Victoria. Uncertainty about the original character and condition of the wetland system required deep exploration of a vast range of historical reference material. This is a story

David Lindenmayer leads six large‐scale, long‐term research programmes in south‐eastern Australia to help conserve biodiversity in restored areas on farmland as well as conservation in reserves, national parks, wood production forests and plantations. What makes this award‐winning researcher tick and how is the research influencing biodiversity management and policy?

Past and continuing fragmentation and modification of ecosystems, as well as other threatening processes, cause ongoing biodiversity losses and species extinctions in Australia. At the same time as biodiversity declines, government funding for conservation and restoration is diminishing, leading to reduced action and greater reliance on private investment and community groups. In order to maintain

To revegetate native plant communities, it is often cheaper to direct seed than to plant nursery‐grown stock. However, the outcomes of direct seeding can be quite variable, and it is unclear whether direct seeding or planting is more likely to facilitate the restoration of diverse plant communities. To address this question, we compared the outcomes of each method across several recent riparian revegetation

Can weedy regrowth be sometimes useful in restoration? Former pastures, created historically by deforestation and other interventions but then retired from agricultural use, now provide a major opportunity for forest restoration. Globally, forest has begun to regenerate spontaneously at large scales on many such retired pasture lands. Additionally, non‐native species are increasingly often the first

Degradation of instream habitats in the northern Murray–Darling Basin has occurred through numerous stressors, including siltation, clearing of bankside vegetation, intrusion of livestock and impacts of pest species. A better understanding of habitat preferences of native fish species could help guide future instream habitat restoration actions. The habitat choices of seven native fish species, juvenile

Despite the evidence that fauna play complex and critical roles in ecosystems (e.g. pollination and nutrient cycling) and the knowledge that they need to be considered in restoration, fauna often remain poorly represented in restoration goal setting, monitoring and assessments of restoration success. Fauna clearly are integral to the aspirations of achieving full ecosystem recovery. However, over‐reaching

Where data and information are lacking, structured expert risk assessments can provide a powerful tool to progress natural resource planning. In many situations, practitioners make informal assessments of risk within small groups that typically constitute employees. In this study, we report on three small (in terms of experts) structured expert‐based risk assessment case studies conducted by expert

We use an experimental approach to evaluate the effectiveness of removing nests of a dominant competitor to create vacant nest boxes for a critically endangered parrot. We compared the number of times that Tree Martin (Petrochelidon nigricans – the dominant competitor at nest boxes) perched at or entered nest boxes intended for Orange‐bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster – the subordinate nest competitor)