A New Vision for Nature

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Bettongs are shy nocturnal marsupials who perform a crucial role in dispersing the underground fungi which are beneficial to eucalypt forests. All four Bettong species are endangered or have disappeared from much of their former range due to land use change and predation by foxes. The Eastern Bettong (pictured) became extinct on the Australian mainland nearly 100 years ago but survives in Tasmania.

Over recent decades we have become accustomed to hearing stories of ecological devastation and probable collapse. We hear about the threats imposed by the ongoing misuse and disregard of our natural heritage and the additional pressures on nature resulting from anthropogenic climate change.  

In the face of these challenges, the Wilderness Society is championing a new and positive vision for nature in Australia. This vision involves understanding how natural systems work; how they have adapted and survived many past changes to become as diverse and glorious as we know them to be. This vision recognises that Australia’s systems can be fragile, but in many cases are resilient if we understand what they need to adapt and heal.

Our vision is WildCountry.

Members of The Wilderness Society have long understood that the Australian continent is an amazing and wild place. WildCountry has taken this appreciation and wonder of Australian nature and added the best available scientific understanding of our ecological systems to define how nature can be supported in adapting and surviving into the future.

Mitchell Falls, WA. Photo: Rod Hartvigsen, Murranji Photography.

The first phase of WildCountry saw the creation of the WildCountry Science Council, which has involved some of Australia’s most eminent ecological scientists. 

This resulted in some foundational work, focused on the processes that govern the distribution and function of plants and animals across Australia’s landscapes.

Some specific areas of scientific work include:

•    Mapping the production of plant material (which then becomes food and shelter for many animals) across Australia, and how this changes over time;

•    Studying the movement of animals that track changing resources across the contingent;

•    Studying the role of native forests in regulating climate change;

•    Studying the bird habitat and the relationship between habitat and disturbance elements (such as fire) in the world’s largest remaining temperate woodland, the ‘Great Western Woodlands’, west of Kalgoorlie.

•    Researching the possible ecological role of the dingo in regulating impacts of predation by cats and foxes on small and endangered native fauna.

•    Studying the effectiveness of protected areas in northern Australia, where there have been recent and severe declines in native mammal populations

•    Documenting the natural processes that determine how coastal and marine ecosystems function.

•    Investigating the knowledge of northern Australia’s declining mammals held by local Indigenous people and encouraging the transfer of this information to younger generations.

•    Exploring the ecological processes important in Northern Australia and possible options for land management that are compatible with this ecology.

•    A novel ecological regionalisation of Australia providing a new geographic basis for conservation planning.

A list of WildCountry-related scientific publications can be found here with many of them available for download.