A more strategic approach to managing invasive weeds and a study on how best to restore Gudgenby Valley will be a prime focus for Namadgi staff in 2026.

Namadgi Area Manager, Mim Jambrecina, said a major review of Namadgi’s invasive plant program has been completed and a new system developed to plan and report on weed management.

‘The review identified and listed all alien plant species in Namadgi,’ Mim said. ‘We’ve risk-assessed the top 32 invasive plants and have begun developing new action plans to deal with the most important ones.

‘We’ll keep building and refining these with the aim of developing a 5-year operational plan for weed management and providing rangers in the field with “tools” to see where the priorities are. We hope the result will be a much more strategic system for managing invasive plants.’

Gudgenby Valley

The Namadgi team also wants to expand its thinking on how best to restore Gudgenby Valley. Considerable restoration work has been done over many years, including by the Gudgenby Bush Regeneration Group. ‘

However, as the valley has not naturally restored from the impacts of past land uses, we’ve engaged internationally renowned soil microbiologist, Walter Jehne, and environmental engineer and agro-ecologist, Ben Fox, to work with us over the next12 months on a plan for the valley,’ Mim said.

Namadgi Area Manager Mim Jambrecina

‘We’ll also engage with NPA and other stakeholders on this. We’ll be asking questions like: what do we want the Gudgenby Valley to be? Do we want to leave it as it is or change its current condition?’

‘With climate change, we want to expand our thinking beyond habitat restoration to such things as retaining or restoring soil moisture and health in the valley, given its location at the top of the Gudgenby Catchment, and as an integral part of the Murray Darling Basin system.’

This article appears in the NPA Bulletin, March 2026.