How Does ReWild Work?

‘Rewilding’ is a concept that is gaining attention around the world, and is largely about recreating balanced ecological systems in the wild that have been changed by humans. At the more extreme end of the scale, this might mean reintroducing apex predators to national parks (which is happening in the UK and the USA).

Good news: ReWild Perth is at the other end of the scale focusing on the home garden.

Our approach focuses on four habitat values that are under threat in urban areas. We also measure a behaviour change value based on community action and pet ownership.

Dry Shelter

Dry shelter includes features that offer protection from the elements, refuge from predators and/or somewhere to nest. This includes tree canopies for birds, groundcover and grasses for lizards and critters, or even manmade constructs (novel habitats).

Wet Shelter

Wet shelter includes damplands, ponds and wildlife baths. These habitats may also supply drinking water (see below), but is measured here for providing homes, refuge and nesting opportunities for animals such as frogs, dragonflies, lizards and small songbirds.

Food

When we talk about wildlife, we mean the entire ecological system – plants and animals – all of which form a part of the food web. We are not talking about actively feeding wildlife.

For example, a plant that provides food for pollinators and critters is essential if you want to attract birds and other animals that eat insects. Going the other way, some plants depend on insects to keep soil healthy and aerated so that they can draw up nutrients.

Our native species have evolved together to create a food web that is under serious pressure from human activities. ReWild Perth primarily values food habitat in terms of its ability to feed animals directly.

Water

Water is essential to life on this planet. Native wildlife that has evolved for our conditions doesn’t necessarily need a lot of water. The provision of water in terms of ReWild habitat value typically refers to access to drinking water for animals, although clever design can allow this habitat value to be combined with Wet Shelter.

Behaviour change goals allow us to protect the environment without necessarily adding habitat to our site. Because they require a longer term commitment, we have determined that any one of the following actions will automatically earn one full ReWild star to your rating. However, you can only achieve the behaviour change star once – you can’t add them together – although this shouldn’t stop you from doing more if you can.

The behaviour change actions are as follows:

Help my local environment group.

Keep my cat indoors from now on.

Keep my outdoor cat away from wildlife.

Keep my dog away from wildlife.

The concept of ReWild is very simple: let’s bring nature home, by making our gardens places where native wildlife (plants and animals) can survive. While the long-term goal of the program is to create (or recreate) our natural environment in a garden setting.

ReWild has been created to show you what you can do, how to do it, and then see your individual and collective impact.

1. Register your ReWild site: This will normally be your garden. Just answer a few simple questions about your location, the type of home you have, and the size of your available garden.
2. Create an Action List:  ReWild will then generate a list of actions suitable for your site. We’re trying to keep it simple and fair – you don’t have to plant a huge tree on your upper-storey balcony to be a part of ReWild – you only have to do what you can. You can print out this list if you want to use it for the next bit.
3. Check out your current habitat value: You might find that you have already done some of the actions, and that’s great! Do a count of any plants or habitat features that already exist at your site – this will provide a baseline and you can make your plans afterward.*
4. Enter your results into ReWild: Go back to your Action List and update it with the number of plants and habitat features already in your site.
5. See your ReWild Level: Congratulations – you now have a ReWild Level! Don’t be disappointed if the Level seems low – this is because creating habitat is quite different to creating a garden. ReWild will help you identify the gaps, and there are some simple actions, particularly around water, that can make a big difference. A ReWild Level of Three is a great achievement, representing a garden that has been adapted to create significant habitat value, combining aspects of several Habitat Values and (usually) a behaviour change score.

* NB: ReWild will only provide information on native species, but that doesn’t mean you can only count plants that are on the list. A native species is preferred, but an non-native tree is still better than no tree. During this early stage, it isn’t necessary to remove anything until you have something in mind to replace it.

Future versions of ReWild will show you exactly how far along the journey you are across all of the habitat values, making it easy to see what kind of habitat value you need to concentrate on.

We will be monitoring the whole process and make adjustments to the scoring system based on your feedback.

In this version, we have supplied goals in your action list that indicate the minimum number of times an action needs to be completed to get the maximum* value for that action.

* NB: It is not necessary to achieve the maximum value for every action. Most actions contribute to one or two habitat values, and it is the combined habitat values and combinations that generate your ReWild Level. You can complete the goals for all or the actions regarding trees, shrubs, small plants and wildflowers and still receive a ReWild Level of Two, because all of those actions contribute to the same two Habitat Values (Dry Shelter and Food). Get a higher score by including Wet Shelter, Water and/or Behaviour Change actions.

We have tried to make ReWild as simple as possible for you, but significant research has been undertaken to ensure the broader goal of repopulating Perth’s unique ecological system to bring nature home.

We start with the soil

The geographical ReWild Perth area historically has five distinct soil types. Some of the plants that have evolved here prefer certain soil types; some have adapted to grow anywhere. We have mapped each suburb to its dominant soil type, so the plant lists supplied for each suburb should provide a curated list indicating the types of plants that would naturally occur in that area.

All about flora

Plants well-adapted to your location means they will perform well and establish quickly. Healthy plants are much better equipped to with stand disease, extreme weather conditions, and subtle variations in the environment. More importantly, healthy plants grown in ideal conditions quickly become the foundation for a thriving ecosystem within the garden. Attracting a wide range of wildlife from native butterflies, birds, reptiles, mammals, and other critical critters.

Critical ‘Critters’

You might be surprised at the number of resources that focus on insects and creepy-crawlies. However, these ‘critical critters’ are a fundamental lynch-pin for a healthy food web, providing ecological services to the soil, food for other animals, and some acting as pollinators. As a general rule, we do not advise widespread use of pesticides, as it destabilises the entire ecosystem.

Urban wildlife 

We have provided significant resources on our local animals, particularly marsupials and birds. Apart from the provision of nesting boxes and refuge homes, there are not a lot of actions directly relating to these animals, but they are the overarching goal for ReWild, to provide habitat that allows our native — and sometimes threatened — species to survive in urban areas. We hope that by exploring these resources, you will gain a greater understanding of what makes our region ecologically significant, while providing you the information you need to help make a difference.