The Bushland Management Division
Our goal is to advocate and implement best practice for the management of bushland.
Definition of Bush Regeneration
The Australian Natural Heritage Charter defines bush regeneration as “the natural recovery of natural integrity following disturbance or degradation where natural integrity means the degree to which a place or ecosystem retains its natural biodiversity and geodiversity and other natural processes and characteristics”.
The National Trust’s Bush Regenerators’ Handbook defines bush regeneration as “to restore and maintain an ecosystem in which natural regeneration can occur”.
In practise, bush regeneration is works carried out in degraded areas of bushland to reduce damaging impacts and trigger natural regeneration of indigenous species.
Aims of Bush Regeneration
- Protection & enhancement of biodiversity – flora, fauna and the ecological communities to which they belong;
- Conservation of Aboriginal and European artefacts;
- Enhancement of the visual and landscape amenity of bushland for the community, so that people can experience and enjoy the natural environment for activities such as walking and bird watching;
- Conservation of the educational and scientific values of the site.
Objectives of bush regeneration
- To identify the degrading impacts which reduce the resilience of “bushland” sites,
- To recognise indigenous and exotic plant species in bushland areas so that vegetation communities can be restored through knowledge of their ecology;
- To advise and determine, in consultation with the owner/management authority, objectives for appropriate management of the bushland vegetation on a site to mitigate any adverse impacts of urbanisation or inappropriate use of bushland.
Other issues which may need consideration include other objectives of the land owner eg; reduction of fire hazard, improvement of water quality or reconstruction to recreate “natural areas”.
