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Step 6: Maintenance and monitoring

Things to think about

  • Has the rehabilitation been a success (have the values and services provided by the wetland been achieved)?
  • What priority actions still remain?
  • What are the next steps for further rehabilitation?
  • What needs to be done to maintain the wetland and when should the work be undertaken?
  • Have the ongoing costs been considered?
  • Is there clarity on who will undertake the maintenance?
  • Are the time frames realistic?
Fishway Photo by Queensland Government

Quick facts

Wetland
rehabilitation can have economic, social, and environmental benefits to local communities. For example, it has the capacity to improve the productivity of fishing.

Ongoing maintenance is an important part of rehabilitation, it is heartbreaking to spend a lot of money and time and then see the weeds taking over the plants carefully planted and / or the site start to erode again or in some way returning to its degraded state. Regular maintenance is less time consuming than irregular checks as invasive weeds grow quickly and can put down long roots or leave seed banks that are much harder to remove than the smaller plants.

Keeping a record of the monitoring and results might help with any additional funding that is needed to finalise unexpected works. Research and monitoring can also help to determine how well the approaches are working to achieve the values and objectives for the site.

  • Continue to use adaptive management e.g. If some of the plants are dying ask why? Is it too wet or dry? Would it be better suited to a different species? Don’t throw good money after bad, try and problem solve.
  • Profile/report on your project and don’t be afraid to document what you would do differently/learnings. See others on the project search tool!

Last updated: 10 September 2018

This page should be cited as:

Department of Environment and Science, Queensland (2018) Step 6: Maintenance and monitoring , WetlandInfo website, accessed 1 February 2021. Available at: https://wetlandinfo.des.qld.gov.au/wetlands/management/rehabilitation/step-6.html

Queensland Government
WetlandInfo   —   Department of Environment and Science