Repairing wetlands of the Lower Murray: Learning from restoration practice

Australia’s wetlands are in serious trouble. By the best available estimates, Australia has lost more than 120 000 square kilometers of wetlands in the last 200 years,or more than 50% of the original area of wetlands (Mitchell 1994). In some regions the rate of loss is as high as 98%, with losses generally over 70% in the settled agricultural areas near urban centres (Streever 1997). So far, the rate of repairing wetlands is almost too small to measure, with estimates of less than 0.01% of the remaining wetland areas undergoing active management to protect and restore their ecosystems (Jensen 1998; Streever 1998). A growing list of wetland repair projects is emerging around Australia, particularly in response to the priorities of the Natural Heritage Trust funding and increasing awareness of the critical values of wetland ecosystems. As these projects develop, science is racing to keep pace with the demand for knowledge and understanding of how wetland ecosystems work and how to put them back together when they have been damaged or altered. We need to go to the theory to determine the initial management design; but the ecological response to the management actions provides critical information to modify both management techniques and