The ongoing battle with weeds in the Wet Tropics region has led to a three-year project across 40 hectares of land that has trialled different methods on the edges of world heritage rainforest.

Terrain NRM has worked with the Cassowary Coast, Douglas and Tablelands regional councils on projects that are buffering world heritage forest from fire and weeds, and restoring woodland habitat. They have also involved revegetation work.

Project coordinator Chelsy Maloney said the goal was to improve the resilience of big patches of native vegetation by managing emerging threats in smaller patches of neighbouring vegetation.

Restoring fire-damaged rainforest near Silkwood

In the Cassowary Coast region, the focus was a fire-damaged section of rainforest on a council reserve along the edges of world heritage rainforest.

“With the likelihood of more rainforest fires given our changing climate, it’s important to learn how to best restore these areas,’’ Terrain project coordinator Chelsy Maloney said.

“Cassowary Coast Regional Council worked with us on a weed management and revegetation project where we trialled low-cost assisted regeneration to support rainforest restoration. We found that by managing the high threat weeds, more space and less competition was created for natural recruitment and pioneer species. In the short term, the forest condition showed a definite improvement.”

Weeds were managed on 3.5 hectares of world heritage rainforest and a strip of revegetated land along the roadside.

Revegetating woodland understorey near Ravenshoe

In the Tablelands region, an infestation of guinea grass and lantana in council reserve land beside South Cedar Creek at Ravenshoe was the focus.

“In woodlands the canopy can often be intact while the understorey is overtaken by weeds. By managing lantana and guinea grass, we’ve started to see lots of different understory species recruiting across 10 hectares, and an increase in native species overall.

“We also trialled high-density understorey revegetation work on 1.5 hectares in an attempt to out-compete exotic pasture grasses such as guinea grass, and there have so far been really good results.”

Hundreds of trees and native mat rushes have been planted along South Cedar Creek at Ravenshoe as part of a war against weeds.

Landholder Anne Evans said she felt like she and husband Ivan had won Lotto when they were approached about planting trees along a creek bank smothered in lantana and guinea grass.

“You couldn’t see the creek for the weeds a couple of months ago, so we brought in machinery to remove them,’’ she said. “Then we got a call from the council and what they were proposing fitted right in with what we were trying to achieve.”

More than 2000 trees and mat rushes have been planted along the creek bank as part of larger project that Terrain NRM and the Tablelands Regional Council are working on which began with weed removal and revegetation work in nearby council reserves bordering South Cedar Creek.

Terrain NRM’s Chelsy Maloney said the ‘Native Vegetation: Many Hands Make Light Work’ project, funded through the Queensland Government’s Natural Resources Investment Program, was improving the resilience of native vegetation in partnership with local councils.

She said weed removal was the focus for 10 hectares at Marshall Park Reserve, and revegetation work would benefit another two hectares along South Cedar Creek.

“At Marshall Park the canopy trees were there, but everything underneath the canopy was invaded by weeds. If we don’t stay on top of managing this area, it’ll lead to an irreversible change of the ecosystem.”

Tablelands Regional Council’s Cr Annette Haydon said the council was removing weeds and trialling the use of a different combination of species, to be planted in patches of the wet schlerophyll forest.

The goal was also to reduce the amount of seeds flowing downstream and causing weed infestations in other areas.

Yellow-bellied gliders and native frogs are on the wish-list for a degraded creek reserve near Ravenshoe that is undergoing a transformation.

Terrain NRM and the Tablelands Regional Council have joined forces to restore land at South Cedar Creek by removing guinea grass and lantana, and planting hundreds of native trees.

More than 1000 trees went into the ground recently, after spraying and brush-cutting marked the start of a four-year restoration program.

Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said seven hectares was being targeted as part of a bigger project “Native Vegetation: Many Hands Make Light Work” which is funded by Terrain through the Queensland Government’s Natural Resources Investment Program, to improve the resilience of big patches of native vegetation in partnership with local councils.

Tablelands Regional Council’s Kylie Freebody said the land was in Marshall Park reserve near the top of Tully Falls Rd, and the focus was on restoring wet sclerophyll forest.

“This country is really important for quite a few species that are listed as ‘vulnerable’, as well as three endangered eco-systems,’’ she said. “We’re looking to help species like the yellow-bellied glider, greater glider, magnificent brood frog, Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo and tapping green-eyed frog.

“This land is considered an important linkage for biodiversity conservation but over the years it has been taken over by invasive weeds.”

Lantana is listed as a Weed of National Significance and guinea grass is a transformer weed which out-competes native vegetation.