ABSTRACT The expansion of Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) into coastal and marine environments requires spatial planning approaches that support Traditional Owner aspirations for Sea Country management while respecting Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). Karajarri Traditional Lands Association and Karajarri Rangers have recently expanded management across more than 237,489 ha of Sea Country in south‐west Kimberley, Western Australia, where limited western scientific data are available for marine planning. This study describes a collaborative participatory mapping project with Karajarri Rangers and Traditional Owners to document Karajarri Indigenous Knowledge (IK) of culturally important species distributions and community coastal activities to inform Sea Country IPA planning. Across two fieldtrips, 29 Karajarri Traditional Owners participated in mapping workshops that documented spatial knowledge for 36 species and eight community activities. The mapped outputs identified areas of high knowledge‐marking intensity along the coastline, particularly around tidal creeks, rocky headlands, sandy beaches and areas where multiple culturally important species or harvesting activities overlapped. Karajarri IK recorded was able to document species distributions across a greater spatial scale than current western knowledge and kernel density estimation analysis on QGIS identified hotspots of high usage and cultural significance to the community. Co‐facilitation of the workshops by Rangers and researchers, time spent on Country and the accessibility of the approach contributed to the success of the project. Karajarri IK documented was limited by not capturing a temporal understanding of both species' distributions or community activities. The outputs generated from this project illustrate the utility of applying IK to marine spatial planning and provide new directions for future research in the region. The project demonstrates that participatory mapping can provide an accessible, culturally governed and management relevant method for documenting IK in spatial forms that support Indigenous‐led marine planning.
ABSTRACT Natural inland wetlands in Southeast Asia provide key biodiversity, hydrological, carbon‐storage and livelihood functions, but are increasingly affected by land‐use change, fire, hydrological modification and climate change and variability. Short‐term monitoring alone is insufficient to evaluate long‐term wetland trajectories, historical variability and restoration baselines. This review evaluates how palaeo‐proxy evidence can inform the conservation, restoration and management of natural inland wetlands in Southeast Asia. A systematic review identified seven eligible studies published between 2011 and 2025, representing eight study sites in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. These studies examined peatland, lake, riparian wetland and floodplain archives using proxies such as pollen and spores, non‐pollen palynomorphs, charcoal, plant macrofossils, sedimentology, geochemistry, loss‐on‐ignition and chronological control. The reviewed records provide evidence for vegetation change, fire activity, hydrological variability, organic matter dynamics, sedimentation, floodplain development and human disturbance over late Quaternary to historical timescales. However, important limitations remain, including uneven geographic coverage, limited plant macrofossil and testate amoeba data, variable chronological control, differences in proxy source area and temporal resolution, and difficulties in separating climatic from anthropogenic drivers. Palaeoecological evidence is most useful for management when translated into decision‐relevant indicators, such as reconstructed water‐table depth, fire history, sediment accretion and floodplain‐aggradation rates, organic matter and carbon dynamics, historical water‐quality conditions and vegetation reference conditions. These indicators can support practical Nature‐based Solutions, including peatland rewetting, fire‐risk reduction, floodplain reconnection, riparian restoration, catchment‐based water‐quality planning and carbon conservation. Future research should prioritise high‐resolution multi‐proxy records, stronger age–depth control, replication across wetland types, and region‐specific calibration datasets to improve the use of palaeoecology in climate‐adaptive wetland conservation and restoration.
ABSTRACT Urban bushland fragments have important natural and social values. Their management is challenging because they typically have experienced complex historical disturbances, making it difficult to settle on the most appropriate restoration targets. We illustrate these issues by chronicling vegetation and fire regime changes in the Queens Domain, a 230‐ha bushland fragment adjacent to central Hobart, Tasmania. This area is at the southernmost end of the grassy woodlands occupying a rift valley that divides western and eastern Tasmania. The establishment of Hobart in 1804 by the British disrupted millennia of Tasmanian Aboriginal management, which had maintained a balance between grass, trees, fire and marsupial herbivores in these grassy woodlands. In the early 19th century, the Domain was used for grazing by sheep and cattle, and there was ongoing removal of trees for timber and firewood. By the late 1800s, the natural values of the Domain were increasingly appreciated, leading to provision of public amenities and restrictions on grazing and tree clearing. The exclusion of domestic herbivores led to an increase in grass biomass and more frequent uncontrolled fires. By the late 20th century, dense understories of casuarina ( Allocasuarina verticillata ) established. Ecological surveys, which ran from the 1970s to the 2020s, highlighted the need for targeted management of several endangered grassland herb species, and led to a major programme to reverse casuarina encroachment using mechanical clearing and poisoning. Additionally, concerns about increasing fire risk underpinned a programme of prescribed burning in grassy eucalypt woodland. These interventions have been effective in returning the Domain to a more open woodland state. However, there remains uncertainty as to their costs and benefits for biodiversity as well as their effectiveness in reducing fire hazard. To resolve this uncertainty, targeted experimentation is needed. We briefly describe such an experiment we have established to test the effects of thinning and prescribed fire on fire hazard, floristic diversity and wildlife assemblages in a nearby reserve invaded by casuarina. The findings of this experiment are designed to be generalised to other grassy woodlands in southern Australia, especially urban bushland fragments.
ABSTRACT In the complex interplay between agriculture and wildlife, free‐living predators pose a unique set of challenges. In western New South Wales (NSW), free‐living canids (legislatively defined as ‘wild dogs’; Canis familiaris ; which currently includes dingoes, feral modern dogs and their hybrids) are managed due to their impacts on livestock production and other wildlife. Although there are divergent perspectives and ongoing debate regarding dingo taxonomy and their management, this paper is framed explicitly within the current taxonomic and NSW legislative classification of wild dogs. Our primary aim was to progress our understanding of wild dog movement ecology in the rangelands of western NSW, thereby providing actionable insights for more strategic and efficient application of current management practices. We utilised GPS tracking collars to record wild dog movements within both agricultural and conservation landscapes to better understand the habitat preference of wild dogs within the landscape. Wild dogs had an average activity area of 683.73 km 2 ( n = 11, days collared = 14–406 days) and moved an average of 15.43 km per day during the study and positively selected for drainage depressions. Such activity areas are much larger than those reported in other studies for the eastern and coastal parts of Australia. These results give land managers a better understanding of wild dog ecology and how they use landscapes in western NSW. For more efficient deployment of control effort, future management could be targeted at drainage lines. More broadly, our study again demonstrates how movement data can be used to help optimise management efforts.
Implications for Managers Avoid generalising data and processes to non‐analogue environments, particularly idiosyncratic forest types such as tall wet eucalypt forests. Recognise that fire suppression, not cultural burning, drives instability through woody thickening and loss of habitat diversity. Shift power from scientific gatekeepers to local Indigenous authority. Support Indigenous‐led cultural burning as a lawful practice that builds ecological resilience and public trust under the guidance of a place‐based governance system. Rebuild management frameworks to incorporate Indigenous authority as decision‐making, not consultation, ensuring policy and practice reflect diverse fire histories and ecologies.
Variability in the inferential strength or reliability of different scientific studies creates uncertainty in the status of knowledge on a given subject, giving rise to multiple myths, furphies and red herrings in scientific discourse. This is particularly true in the case of dingo ecology and management in Australia, which exemplifies common issues surrounding the management of many charismatic predators around the world. In this viewpoint article I describe and classify 15 dingo-related topics as myths, furphies and red herrings, including topics as diverse as genetics, evolutionary history, behaviour, lethal control, species interactions, management practices and policy settings. I argue that myths are often used as an excuse to 'do nothing' or to avoid having to do or face something uncomfortable, whereas furphies can cause confusion and create unnecessary argument between stakeholders when management actions incorrectly assume their truthfulness. Practices and policies reliant on myths and furphies inevitably produce poor social, economic and environmental outcomes. Though they can be statements of truth, the deployment of red herrings during discourse does nothing to resolve disagreement, advance knowledge or achieve clarity and shared understanding between stakeholders. As an alternative to ongoing and unproductive debates about the myths, furphies and red herrings described, I encourage a refocus towards the priority issues identified by the IUCN Canid Specialist Group's Dingo Working Group, including obtaining better information on Australian dingoes' relationships with other wild canids, the non-numerical effects of dingo control and the effectiveness of non-lethal tools to manage conflicts with dingoes. Avoidance of myths, furphies and red herrings in favour of a refocus towards more important topics is likely to advance the science of dingo conservation and management more rapidly, and in a much more congenial way, than would otherwise be the case.
ABSTRACT Feral deer are associated with a range of environmental impacts including overgrazing and trampling of native vegetation, increased insolation, ringbarking, creation of wallows, erosion and stream degradation. Consequences of invasive deer impacts can threaten vulnerable ecological communities and have the potential to alter long‐term vegetation dynamics if deer populations are left uncontrolled. Studies of feral deer impacts in Australia to date have mostly focused on forested natural areas and agricultural lands; however, deer also pose a threat to the environment and property in urban and peri‐urban areas. In this study we investigated the impacts of feral deer (fallow and possibly red deer) in urban and peri‐urban habitats using faecal pellet counts and vegetation browsing assessments at 29 sites throughout western Lake Macquarie. Deer were found to have a patchy distribution; however, where present, significant impacts were observed. Browsing impacts were significantly greater in plots containing faecal pellets. There was a significant relationship between the number of faecal pellets detected and browsing intensity. Forested wetland had the highest browse rate of all vegetation types at 35%, with dry sclerophyll at 10% and wet sclerophyll at 20%. This study provides insights into the study of feral deer impacts in urban and peri‐urban areas. We provide recommendations for researchers conducting future studies in such habitats to quantify ecological impacts and to overcome access difficulties experienced in this study.
Wild dog management is important for mitigating predation impacts on wildlife and livestock. Baiting is the most commonly used tool for managing wild dogs given its ease of application and cost effectiveness. However, wild dogs must find and consume baits for programs to be successful. Non-target species in Western Australia are fortunate to have little ill effects when consuming 1080 baits but reduce bait availability for wild dogs through consumption of baits. In Western Australia non-target interference reduces the effectiveness of wild dog baiting programs. In order to overcome this issue we baited at a higher rate of 40 baits/km in spring of 2021 and 2022. During the 2021 dried meat bait deployment wild dog density was reduced by 97%, and in 2022 during the sausage bait drop wild dog density increased by 60%. However, in 2022, the wild dog density was only 11 wild dogs per 100 linear km due to previous bait deployments. Overall, baiting at a higher rate of 40 baits/km rather than 10 baits/km is an effective method of wild dog management in Western Australia, at least when wild dog density is high.
Multi-year population studies are central to conservation efforts to help determine the status of populations and the necessity of interventions. Small, threatened macropod marsupials are highly susceptible to decline and extinction, yet few studies report multi-year dynamics of their populations. We document the multi-year dynamics of populations of three small macropods (two of which are threatened) and two mammalian predators in two subtropical forest reserves in north-eastern New South Wales (NE NSW), Australia. In one reserve, populations of the threatened northern long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus tridactylus) and the threatened red-legged pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica) showed little change in occupancy over an 8-year period and coexisted with populations of dingoes (Canis familiaris) and feral cats (Felis catus). In the other reserve, the red-legged pademelon and the non-threatened red-necked pademelon (Thylogale thetis) populations exhibited high occupancy over a 12-year period. In contrast, the long-nosed potoroo population experienced a protracted and major decline, resulting in a greater than 80% decrease in occupancy over the study period. There was no evidence to implicate dingoes or feral cats in this decline. We hypothesise that predation by red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) may be driving this decline and preventing recovery. Drought may also be a contributing factor. Interventions, such as fox control, may be necessary to prevent the localised extinction of the long-nosed potoroo in this reserve. We recommend continued monitoring to ensure the ongoing conservation of these threatened macropod populations.
Controlling the invasive species Undaria pinnatifida remains a worldwide issue with very few successful eradications reported. Following the detection of U. pinnatifida within a Marine Protected Area in Victoria, Australia, in 2017, an ongoing management program was implemented, with monitoring occurring until 2022. Following a resource intensive effort in 2017 (estimated average of 330 in-water hours), a suppression phase from 2018 implemented a reproductive sporophyll excision removal method, which aimed to reduce manual handling (estimated average of 280 in-water hours from 2018 to 2022), U. pinnatifida reproductive output and spore spread. U. pinnatifida abundance and sporophyll size was monitored to identify optimal time of year to target removal efforts. Sessile species assemblage was also monitored to identify any changes that could be linked to U. pinnatifida abundance. Between late winter and late spring, U. pinnatifida abundance was generally highest, with senescence observed in summer. Less plants were observed in Autumn, with new cohorts generally emerging in winter. Reproductive sporophylls developed quickly, and were found in all seasons, with the largest most frequently in spring. This study found that the management should target removal efforts is in winter and spring, to reduce the number of future generation plants. U. pinnatifida had no identifiable impacts on native species assemblages, which remained similar through time. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of high effort removal of U. pinnatifida followed by sustained invasive species control at preserving natural values in a marine protected area.
Woody plant encroachment is a key issue that needs to be addressed when restoring abandoned farmland previously used for livestock grazing. In a conservation context, woody shrubs can be problematic if they prevent the establishment of a desired vegetation composition and structure by outcompeting other species for light, nutrients and water. However, there is limited research on effective methods of shrub removal that can provide recommendations to land managers, particularly where the objectives are related to conservation outcomes. We experimentally tested three methods of woody plant encroachment control at a semi-arid ex-pastoral property now managed for conservation: (1) mechanical rolling, (2) rolling and then burning, and (3) burning alone. We found that Rolled and Rolled+Burnt treatments effectively suppressed woody species over the 4-year study period but affected plant community composition and groundcover dynamics differently. While the resulting understorey of these two treatments was more compositionally appropriate for this ecological community, overstorey species were almost entirely absent in recovering vegetation. This suggests that further interventions such as direct seeding or out-planting will be required to restore overstorey components at this site.
The reinstatement of Indigenous fire practices across northern Australia has demonstrated positive biocultural outcomes for local Indigenous communities, including reconnection to culture, Country and biodiversity conservation. However, limited research has specifically investigated the alignment of contemporary Indigenous fire management to fine-grained preferences, values and responsibilities for cultural fire, especially those of Indigenous women. This study incorporated qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess whether recent fire regimes in the Mimal Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) reflect the preferences and values of Dalabon, Rembarrnga and Mayili women across culturally important places. Contemporary Indigenous women's knowledge and obligations for burning were also elicited, including site-based responsibilities shaped by cultural protocols and kinship roles, ongoing care of culturally significant areas, and responsibilities for intergenerational knowledge transfer. The research indicated substantial alignment of contemporary fire management to traditional and gendered values and responsibilities in caring for Country. All women interviewed had a nuanced understanding of which areas to burn and why, often related to protecting sacred sites, promoting traditional bush foods, and access for hunting or recreation. Some discrepancies between preferences and fire regimes across several cultural sites indicated that more explicit incorporation of broader community values, particularly those of women, into fire management decision-making processes would likely benefit overall cultural and land management outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of engaging Indigenous women and their knowledge in conservation initiatives to help inform community-based decision-making in cultural fire management.
In Australia, pastoralists, not-for-profit, and government organisations are managing stands of open woodland to conserve threatened species' habitats. These land areas are usually larger than a cropping field but smaller than many National Parks in Australia. In this age of broad-scale satellite remote sensing of Earth and its environment, the question is: can free, high-resolution satellite imagery provide as much efficacy for vegetation trend monitoring as commercial ultra-high spatial resolution imagery? We undertook a spatial analysis of several pairs of Maxar WorldView (WV) and European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 (S2) images and two 'paddock scale' properties with the budget-strapped threatened species' habitat manager in mind. We found moderate to strong correlations comparing image data sets for standard vegetation health indices (NDVI, NDRE and LAI). We conclude that the habitat manager can streamline their threatened species open-woodland monitoring budget using Sentinel-2 images for vegetation assemblage health trend monitoring.
Adaptive management that predicts and responds rapidly to triggers is essential for sustained conservation and animal welfare outcomes for contained animal populations, including of threatened species. We provide a template for creating a sustainable and culturally-appropriate Strategic Adaptive Management Plan for confined wildlife, using a case study of a warru (black-flanked rock-wallaby) enclosure in northern South Australia. The key role of frequent systematic monitoring by traditional owners and scientists and agreement by all stakeholders on thresholds and priorities for intervention is fundamental. Stakeholders unanimously recognised that maintaining the population within sustainable thresholds is integral to conservation and cultural objectives and leads to improved animal welfare outcomes.
Impact pathway diagrams based on conceptual ecological modelling are an important tool for identifying where effective conservation strategies can be designed and targeted to mitigate the impacts of an invasive species on a native species. These are particularly useful when the eradication of the invasive species may not be possible. Here we apply this approach to identify the impacts of feral water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) on the northern long-necked turtle (Chelodina rugosa) in the Arafura Swamp Indigenous Protected Area in northern Australia. Understanding the pathways leading to deleterious effects is even more critical when the impact of the invasive species, in this case the buffalo, is not a direct one but rather indirect impacts that occur from the buffalo's role as an 'ecosystem engineer'. Conceptual modelling of the physical, chemical and biotic changes caused by buffalo to the habitats utilised by C. rugosa over its life stages, and associated responses, indicated the main pathways leading to population decline. These included a reduction in C. rugosa reproductive success and decreased resilience to extended aestivation periods. Buffalo-mediated soil modification may directly increase adult and egg mortalities and interfere with conditions required for successful aestivation and embryo development. Other stressors include predation by other feral species and climate variability. With the pathways leading to population decline identified, mechanisms to address the impacts of buffalo can be designed and effective strategies developed to conserve this culturally significant turtle species. This approach is an effective tool for land managers where species-specific and place-based conservation strategies are needed and is critical to conservation where the stressor cannot be effectively removed.
Collaborative management underpinned by shared decision-making is increasingly accepted as an effective tool to halt the decline in biodiversity and support species and ecosystem recovery. Indigenous people are lobbying to mandate collaborative management of Culturally Significant Entities (CSEs): species and ecological communities to which Indigenous peoples attribute cultural value, and which are critical to their relationship with and adaptation to country. However, the challenge persists in reaching a balance between the application of Western Science and Indigenous Knowledge to achieve genuine collaborative management using shared decision-making. As a group of Indigenous Australian researchers, with insights from our collective professional experience, we explore some management scenarios for CSEs. We highlight how environmental managers and researchers find themselves injecting their unconscious biases in decision-making, favouring Western Science over Indigenous Knowledge. There are many lessons to improve collaborative management, and we explore three primary connected themes. (1) Rightsholders not stakeholders, (2) Who speaks for country and (3) Valuing Indigenous Knowledge. We find that there is no escaping the reality that building meaningful and respectful relationships with Indigenous people requires investment and that there needs to be a significant shift in the cultural competency of the environmental sector to achieve equity in collaborative management.
In Australia, poison baits are aerially deployed in remote and inaccessible areas to mitigate invasive animal impacts. Program efficacy and compliance with mandated distance restrictions require accurate bait distribution but deployment accuracy and precision have not been evaluated for Doggone manufactured baits. We aimed to measure bait drift from the release point; assess bait availability to the target species; and evaluate bait matrix integrity upon impact. Under standard aerial baiting conditions, a helicopter deployed 100 Doggone baits fitted with VHF transmitters along transects on open (n = 50) or forested agricultural land (n = 50), and 50 baits without transmitters (controls) were deployed in open land. GPS waypoints were recorded as each bait was released from the helicopter, as were their landing positions. Bait availability and structural integrity were also assessed. Baits with transmitters travelled substantially farther (89.83 +/- 15.26 m) than controls (61.61 +/- 16.83 m) but with lower horizontal displacement from the flight line (3.68 +/- 3.21 m cf. 4.95 +/- 3.34 m, respectively) and with 84% landing to the right. Most baits (97%) remained accessible to wild dogs. The Doggone matrix was highly stable, with only one bait fracturing and four disintegrating during impact trials. Doggone baits are suitable for helicopter deployment in eastern NSW and the accuracy of deployment is appropriate for conformity with mandated distance restrictions. Aerial baiting transects should be curtailed 100 m from restricted zones to ensure aerial baiting buffer requirements are met. Deployment accuracy will be dependent on the aircraft and chute orientation. However, for studies similar to ours, accuracy could be improved by flying 5 m left of designated transects.
Toxins for vertebrate pest control in bait material degrade under field conditions but there are limited data available on the degradation of toxins used in canid pest ejectors (hereafter ejectors). Re-use of non-activated capsules would be practical for end-users and support the optimal and cost-efficient use of vertebrate toxins. This study assessed the degradation of capsules intended for wild dog applications containing sodium fluoroacetate (1080) or para-aminopropiophenone (PAPP) under storage and field conditions in north-eastern Australia (Queensland) and Western Australia. Only 2.6% of 1080 capsules showed any signs of potential leakage, and only a minimal loss of 1080 content occurred over the 2-year study period in Queensland. The rate of degradation was not significantly different between 1080 capsules deployed in the field and those kept in storage, while field-deployed capsules in Western Australia decayed at a faster rate than those kept in storage. Regardless, degradation rates were minimal across both sites, with modelling suggesting that the 1080 content in capsules would still exceed that required for a lethal dose for wild dogs (LD50 = 1.76 mg) for extended periods (similar to 4-9 years). Intact, undamaged PAPP capsules were highly resistant to degradation, with neither stored nor field-deployed PAPP capsule treatments at either site showing any significant loss in PAPP content after 2 years. However, similar to 4% of PAPP capsules in the Western Australian study suffered physical failure, and subsequently contained only trace amounts of toxin, but could be easily identified for disposal. Collectively and conservatively, our findings support the use of undamaged (and non-activated) PAPP or 1080 capsules for at least 2 years, following careful inspection and subsequent rejection of damaged capsules. These results are reassuring and provide valuable recommendations to inform users on the effective, safe and efficient use (and re-use) of toxic capsules in ejectors for wild canid control.
Frequent fire in temperate native grasslands in south-east Australia has maintained high plant diversity. The timing of fire implemented by fire agencies over the last several decades has been in summer and autumn. This coincides with the dormant season for many grassland plants. Recent trends in agency burning, partly driven by earlier curing and the need to protect high-asset crops in the wider landscape, have seen a shift to earlier season burning, often coinciding with when grassland plants may be growing or flowering. The potential implications of this shift in burning season have not been documented. We sought to understand how earlier fires may impact grassland species by studying their phenology (i.e., the timing of flowering). We demonstrate that flowering was strongly seasonal; native species flowered predominately in spring, while exotics peaked in early spring and declined thereafter. Four types of species-level phenology were identified. For native species, phenological patterns included (i) early-season (strictly spring-flowering only), (ii) late-season (strictly summer-flowering only), (iii) long-flowering, and (iv) spring-summer overlap flowering. Exotic species were predominantly early-season flowering, or spring-summer overlapping. Differences in phenology can be explained by life form. Exotic species were predominantly C3 therophytes (annuals), whereas native species include a mix of C3 geophytes and hemicryptophytes. Hence, the greatest proportion of native and exotic species are reproductive at the time of spring burning, with consequent effects likely for their flowering and seed set. Strategic use of spring burns may suppress annual exotic species populations by preventing seed set, a potentially useful management tool; efforts to control exotics must be carefully balanced against risks to native flora that also flower in spring. Understanding species phenology can help frame hypotheses about how fire season may affect grassland communities, but direct studies of fire impacts are needed to guide management.
Urban green space is important for conserving biodiversity in urban landscapes, however, the dominant management regime in urban green space (regular mowing) has relatively low biodiversity value. We explored if direct-seeding (scrape and sow), planting (and mulching) and passive restoration are viable alternatives to regular mowing for restoring biodiversity to grassy woodlands in urban green space. We compared the vegetation integrity of these restoration treatments with regular mowing using the Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM) within urban green spaces in Canberra, Australia and compared the cost-effectiveness of each treatment. Direct-seeding (scrape and sow) provided, on average, the greatest vegetation integrity, followed by planted, regularly mowed and unmanaged sites. Although some unmanaged sites provided vegetation integrity at the lowest cost, on average direct seeding was the most cost-effective way to provide vegetation integrity, followed by mowing and planting. We conclude that direct-seeding (scrape and sow) is a cost-effective alternative to regular mowing and mulching and planting for supporting biodiversity in urban grassy woodlands, however, planting may be a better option where the goal is providing a dense shrub layer (e.g., for conserving birds). Passive restoration shows promise as a cost-effective alternative for providing vegetation integrity if it can be implemented in locations with a low cover of exotic plants. Greater use of direct seeding and passive restoration in urban green space will require strategies (e.g., cues to care) that lead to greater acceptance of heterogeneity and 'messiness' within urban areas.
