Can jarrah forests be recovered after bauxite mining?

Alcoa was fined $55M in February for illegally clearing 2,000 hectares of WA jarrah forest, with $40M earmarked for 'permanent ecological offsets.' Researchers ask whether such recovery is even possible. Lead with the science: jarrah forests have unique soil-microbiome dependencies that mining-disrupted sites cannot restore at scale. Mechanism: 'offset' fines presume reversibility that the ecology doesn't support.