Forest recovery in an Australian amenity landscape: implications for biodiversity conservation on small-acreage properties

Some urbanising rural (i.e. 'amenity') landscapes have seen an increase in forest cover over recent decades. Small-acreage landowners are key stakeholders in this forest recovery and its future ecological trajectory. Using 17 qualitative case-studies of small-acreage properties located in the Noosa hinterland in south-east Queensland, this study explores the types and condition of forests on these properties, the landholder's differing forest management perspectives, practices and outcomes, and the implications for local biodiversity conservation. The properties contained a diverse mix of managed and un-managed natural and planted forests. Invasive weed species were a common component. Protecting and enhancing the ecological values of amenity landscapes will require an increase in active, best-practice forest management on small-acreage properties. Small-acreage landowners will require greater access to labour support and other subsidised resources to implement recommended practices. Such practices include controlling and reducing the spread of invasive weeds and soil erosion, reducing fire hazards, and positively influencing the rate and pathway of succession in regrowth forests. Peer-mentoring programs incorporating guided tours of 'model' small-acreage forests, and supporting landowners to establish their own small native plant nurseries and engage with local community nurseries (i.e. supplying seeds, volunteering labour), could help to increase small-acreage landowners' forest management interests, knowledge, skills and activity. Long-term cooperative, cross-boundary forest management projects with on-going monitoring and adaptive management guided or implemented by skilled professionals are needed in amenity landscapes, particularly to increase the success of restoration interventions in weed-dominated regrowth forests. There is also a need for long-term socio-ecological analyses of amenity landscapes' diverse and evolving small-acreage forests to better inform their future management.