TEMPERATE EUCALYPT WOODLANDS - A REVIEW OF THEIR STATUS, PROCESSES THREATENING THEIR PERSISTENCE AND TECHNIQUES FOR RESTORATION

Temperate eucalypt woodlands were once widespread throughout southern Australia and Tasmania. Following European settlement, woodlands were cleared for agriculture, or grazed and converted to pasture. In the wh eatbelts of south-western and south-eastern Australia, woodlands have been almost completely eliminated from the landscape with as little as 3% of some woodland types remaining. As a consequence, some temperate eucalypt woodland communities are amongst the most poorly conserved e cosystems in Australia. The main effect of widespread clearing and gra zing has been the loss of habitat. This has had a devastating impact o n the woodland flora and fauna. A number of species have become extinc t and many are threatened; many others have undergone regional and loc al population declines. Woodlands now occur throughout much of their f ormer range as remnants of varying size, quality and isolation. Many o f these are under threat from further clearing, rising saline water ta bles and increased inundation, livestock grazing, nutrient enrichment, soil structural decline, altered fire regimes and the invasion of exo tic weeds. The degradation and loss of biodiversity in temperate eucal ypt woodlands will continue unless clearing stops and the management o f remnants changes; this will invariably involve ecological restoratio n both at the patch and landscape level. The review discusses approach es to restoration and reveals that there are few data in the published literature describing techniques for reversing degrading processes an d restoring diversity structure and function in remnant woodlands. Thi s information is urgently needed. Past research on temperate eucalypt woodlands has focused on identifying the processes of degradation and these are now relatively well documented. There is a need to shift the focus of research to developing solutions for these problems.