Restoring Grassy Ecosystems

What are grassy ecosystems

Grassy ecosystems include forests and treeless ecosystems with a high proportion of grasses and grass-like plants in their ground layer. This includes many of our Eucalypt forests, forested wetlands, sedgelands and heathlands.

Why this matters now

Our grassy ecosystems are ancient and fragile, and provide unique habitat for many of the region’s threatened plants and animals. The grassy ground layer contains most of the plant diversity in these systems, and provides key nesting, foraging and sheltering habitat for a wide range of animals. Yet across the Northern Rivers, many grassy ecosystems are declining rapidly after long periods without fire. The canopy closes, the shade-intolerant grassy ground layer is lost, and the system becomes more vulnerable and less resilient to severe bushfire. Once that ground layer is gone, it is very difficult to restore.

How the flagship is taking shape

The flagship is being built as a set of partnerships across different tenures and landscapes — with fire agencies, local government, Cultural Fire organisations and private landholders.

Each partnership will include:

• A focus grassy ecosystem and focus species group.
• Demonstration sites where good fire is planned, applied and observed.
• Workshops, field days and training that build hands-on capability among agency and council staff, practitioners and landholders.
• Practical guidance and resources — decision pathways, maps, case studies and short videos.
• Simple monitoring feeding a shared learning loop, so what one partnership learns reaches all of them.

Through these partnerships we aim to:

• Build practical capacity to plan and apply good fire.
• Grow community understanding of why grassy ecosystems need fire.
• Improve outcomes for biodiversity and for bushfire risk.
• Connect isolated efforts into a shared regional body of practice that partners can draw on and add to.

The partnerships, demonstration sites and supporting guidance will be set out on this page as they take shape.