Evaluation and assessment: is it time tocommunicate results more broadly?

Evaluation and assessment plays a crucial role in improved

ecosystem management and restoration, and this is amply

illustrated by almost all the articles in this issue.

In the research reports published this issue, Tricia Wevill and

Singarayer Florentine evaluate the extent to which fencing and

planting of locally native species in farm riparian zones has led

to the development of vegetation that resembles nearby riparian

reference systems. While the emphasis in these projects was on

trees and shrubs, results are sufficiently encouraging to suggest

that future enrichment plantings of other growth forms and

missing species can be undertaken (at least on selected sites)

to progress farmed riparian zones further along trajectories of

recovery in the longer term. Similarly, Rachel Standish and

colleagues evaluate seedling emergence and summer survival

after direct seeding at Peniup, in Western Australia’s Gondwana

Link Corridor, to provide insights to guide future projects. Initial

establishment was substantial for diverse species from a number

of genera (especially in sandy soils) despite very dry summer

conditions, while summer survival was higher in clay soils.

Differences in results between the soil types raised important

questions about potential to improve the friability of clay soils

for improved germination in future projects.

In terms of improving management of existing ecosystems,

Zoe Sato and colleagues provide an evaluation of the impacts

of Australian mainland ski resorts on biodiversity, particularly

reptiles, and provide recommendations for improved manage-

ment including confining resort-associated disturbances and

applying vegetation restoration approaches. Short reports in this

issue also reflect this theme of evaluation: with Zoe Jellie and col-

leagues evaluating the effectiveness of restoration methods, and

John Nelder and colleagues evaluating the extent to which mine-

site revegetation resembles local reference sites.

Such evaluations and recommendations are what would be

expected of an applied management and restoration ecology

journal. Less expected perhaps is the philosophical reflection

contained in this issue’s essay and features. New Zealand science

communicator Alexandra Sides and her colleagues, for example,

propose in their essay that there is a disjunction between the

views of islands as conveyed by ecological researchers, and views

of islands reflected in the public imagination. They question

whether it is healthy for islands to be largely viewed, as they

can be in the public literature, as isolated curiosities; or is it time

for the views of researchers (i.e. that islands can be rich in les-

sons for larger landscapes) to be better communicated to the

public to increase potential for such islands to be better managed

and conserved?

Similarly, the feature by Amy Hahs and Mark McDonnell out-

lines the extent of likely extinctions yet to be played out in the

city of Melbourne, Australia, and speculates on steps that could

be undertaken to minimize those extinctions. The interview with

Paul Gibson-Roy functions almost as a companion piece, with its

emphasis on restoring grasslands, a major ecosystem type in the

Melbourne area and containing many of that city’s threatened

species. Importantly, both these feature articles emphasise the

importance of communicating big ideas about conserving biodi-

versity in cities to the general public and to enlist the public in

greater efforts to incorporate biodiversity into our cities and their

surrounding areas. The authors suggest this can be done through

incorporating more native species into our roadsides and gar-

dens, and better managing grassy woodlands in peri-urban areas

for greater social and ecological amenity.

Some may say that the call for planting native species is an old

idea that has had limited uptake in the past, so why make an

effort now? But never before has there been such an obvious

need to both increase habitats for biodiversity conservation and

attract more members of society to the cause. Never before has

urbanization been such a pervasive pressure worldwide and

hence never before have some many people, globally, been at

risk of detachment from the rest of nature. Perhaps with a new

emphasis on herbaceous species, this is now an idea whose time

has really come?

Tein McDonald

(Editor, EMR)

ª 2014 The Author ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION VOL 15 NO 2 MAY 2014 101Ecological Management & Restoration ª 2014 Ecological Society of Australia and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd

doi: 10.1111/emr.12115

E D I T O R ’ SP E R S P E C T I V E

EcologicalSociety of Australia