The management of a degraded habitat aimed at restoring it to ‘an ecologically superior state’ (Borg et al. (2007) Geomorph. 89, 1–2). An understanding of the recovery and reassembly of plant communities is imperative for habitat rehabilitation (Thornton (1984) Ambio 28). Borg et al. (op. cit.) argue that rehabilitation projects should provide the appropriate elements for a healthy system; one would then let these elements interact to produce some target state. The problem lies in determining what that target state should be; habitat changes that are beneficial to one species may be detrimental to another; thus, ‘in some ways, habitat rehabilitation is based on explicit or implicit species values’ (Clough (2003) Rept. Fish Habitat & Species Recovery Wkshp).