Wet Tropics Restoration Efforts Lacking Tree Tracking, Study Finds

In Queensland’s Wet Tropics, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, volunteers, community groups, Indigenous rangers and commercial land managers have planted over 300,000 native trees to replace cleared pasture. A study by James Cook University and the University of Queensland surveyed 25 restoration organizations and discovered that once young trees shade out weeds, many groups stop monitoring tree growth. This gap means key goals—re‑establishing wildlife habitats and reconnecting fragmented forest—are not accurately measured. The region hosts 2,800 plant species, 700 of which are endemic, and supports 40 % of Australia’s bird species, including the southern cassowary, northern bettong and spotted‑tailed quoll.