An Australian zoo credited with saving 7 native species from extinction aims to continue its vital work by rewilding a 3,050-acre tract of farmland.

The aim was to plant Box-Gum trees across the cleared land to act as a corridor to connect existing wildlife habitats.

The Taronga Zoo Conservation Society (TZCS) then plans to release platypus, koalas, spotted quolls, and the Endangered regent honeyeater.

The farmland can be found on the Nandewar Range, part of the Australian continent’s Great Dividing Range, in New South Wales. It’s about 100 times bigger than the zoo that society maintains in the Sydney Harbor.

The TZCS estimates that around 1 million seedlings will be needed to restore native tree cover, after which they expect some species to return quickly.

CEO Cameron Kerr told ABC News AU that experts would then monitor how these native species recolonize the area and decide how to manage the species, expected to take a decade or more to fully reclaim their ancestral territory.

“What we are going to do is first of all establish the habitat and get the ecosystem looking after itself so that pest management and weed management will decline over time as the habitat becomes healthy,” Mr. Kerr said.

“At the right time we will assess what wildlife is coming in from outside and what wildlife we need to re-introduce.”

TZCS has extensive experience in reintroducing native species. ABC claims that 60,000 animals, from tadpoles to larger mammals like koalas, have been bred, reared, and released through the society’s 16 targeted breeding programs.

At the same time, rewilding landscapes will be a first for the zoo, and the Nandewar Rangeland is the only such project since it transformed 300 acres into the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo.

Directors of the program are aware that the landscape isn’t free of invasive, predatory animals such as foxes and pigs, so feral animal control will have to be incorporated into plans. Kerr said that Australia can no longer rely on the forest landscapes it has left to protect native, threatened wildlife.

The nation has to actively begin restoring native forests if citizens want the continent’s panoply of curious native animals to survive long into the future.

The good news in this story is that native forests are being reestablished at the direction of zoo personnel with a look to the future. Today’s JohnKu talks about vision. I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Future by John W. Howell © 2025

A plan for today,

Must look into the future . . .

To save our planet.