Protect Vital Rainforest in Australia for Climate

Hello Mates!

We at the Australian Rainforest Foundation are happy to be reporting back to you. I would like to announce that on 16 June (next Wednesday), GlobalGiving is having a Matching Day for all donations!! Please, if you are thinking about possibly donating to our project, the 16th would be a great day to do it. Also, if any of you work for a company that offers a Gift Match Program and/or a Charitable Contribution Program, donations via your employer-sponsored benefit would double (and even sometimes triple) the giving power. The ARF is also working on setting up a promotion fit for companies where the ARF would give away trips for two to Australia. Trips would include getting your hands dirty and helping us rehabilitate the rainforest, wildlife treks and of course great sightseeing of the Daintree rainforest, Great Barrier Reef and much, much more. Please contact Paul Medici, Manager of American Operations, for more details. We would love to see some of you mates out...

Hi folks,

We will be posting our next field report real soon. My name is Paul Medici and I am the Manager of American Operations for the Australian Rainforest Foundation. Great to be writing to you all. I am going to be in New York City this summer (looks like middle July) and I wanted to put on a little donor appreciation lunch for everyone in the area that would like to meet. I think this would be a great way to just say hi, talk openly about operations and thank all of you for all you have done. I will also have some information, reports and Australian Rainforest Foundation (ARF) merchandise on hand to give out.

If you are interested in learning more about this lunch in the city this coming July, please send me an email at medicipj2@yahoo.com. Thank you and the ARF looks forwarding to updating all of you on project news soon.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Mates,

Well, the rains finally came in around the end of October and all is right with our rehabilitation areas. In the Mansford Reserve, we lost under 12 trees out of a total of 2,000 plus recently planted trees. This great stat is due to the care the trees got while in our nursery and our watering efforts during the bad dry spell.

With the rainy season now upon us, we are busy weeding the site and identifying the trees with small numbered stakes in the ground. We are also GPS’ing all the principal trees.

***We could always use a few extra hands so if any of you have an urge to get your hands and knees dirty this holiday season and hear the rainforest calling your name, good on ya! There is always work to be done.

Thank you for a great year and helping us accomplish so much on the ground. Please let us know if you would like more information on our efforts, project and upcoming operations.

Cheers,

Roger

Dear Mates,

Thank you for your continued support of the Australian Rainforest Foundation. We wanted to let you know about an exciting opportunity that we are participating in through our partners, GlobalGiving.

When a donation is made to our project, Protect Vital Rainforest in Australia for Climate (www.globalgiving.com/1842) on GlobalGiving between November 10 and December 1, GlobalGiving will match that donation at 30%, 40% or 50%. And if we raise the most money or get the most donations, we are eligible for bonus awards up to $10,000. Matching funds are limited, so act quickly.

You can help us raise more money and earn the GlobalGiving prize money by spreading the word!

1) Pass along this email to your friends and families and ask them to tell others.

2) If you are planning to make a donation this year to Protect Vital Rainforest in Australia for Climate, please do so by going to our project on GlobalGiving at www.globalgiving.com/1842.

***Also, for all those who...

Hello friends,

My name is Paul Medici and I am the Assistant Project Leader for Protect Vital Rainforest in Australia for Climate. I am also the Manager of American Operations for the Australian Rainforest Foundation and I just returned home from a three week working trip to Australia. Accompanying me on this trip was Nicole LaGreco, Supervisor of the Avian Propagation Center and North American Cassowary Studbook Keeper from the San Diego Zoo. The San Diego Zoo has been a big supporter of our GlobalGiving project and the Australian Rainforest Foundation and like of all you, their donations (as well as working with some of their excellent bird department staff) have made all the difference. Without all of you, our rehabilitation efforts and recovery work with endangered species would be severely weakened.

The focus of this field report this month is on maintaining rehabilitation sites in the tropical rainforests of Northern Queensland, Australia. This time of year is...

Out with the Weed, in with the Tree…

Hi there….,

Well its June here in the beautiful Daintree National Park, North Queensland, which signals the dry season in the tropics. We have a very busy few months ahead of us to achieve our targets in extending and repairing the Rainforest.

We were lucky enough to have 24 students from St Kevin’s College in Victoria come up and give us a hand in some weed eradication, site testing and clean up. They came in three waves to the site to slog it out by slashing, rubbish removal, weed pulling and of course tree planting. We now have four different kinds of weed eradication tests in progress for best practice in the future. The kids were able to take with them some valuable lessons in caring for our environment as well as splinters, bruises and sore muscles for their hard work, for which we are very grateful.

The dry season allows us to have full access to the site that we don’t have during the wet season. We have found the feral pigs...

Hi Mates,

Project Leader Roger Phillips here. I have some great news to share with you!

If you donate now to help rehabilitate and protect Australia's rainforests, your generous gift will be matched. That's right! In honor of Earth Day 2009, GlobalGiving has offered to match all donations at 50% (up to $5,000 per individual). The match will be available from April 4 – April 28 or until $25,000 in matching funds have been depleted.

In addition to matching funds, we are also competing for prizes! The three projects receiving the greatest number of donations will receive prizes of $5,000, $2,500, and $1,000, respectively. Even if matching funds are depleted, the challenge portion of the campaign will continue until April 28th.

We need to act fast! By donating now through GlobalGiving, you will be supporting our project Protect Vital Rainforest in Australia for Climate.

We are very grateful that GlobalGiving selected us for this bonus opportunity. Please help us make...

"It was a hot and sticky day in the rainforest...the rainy season was fast approaching and hands and knees got very dirty."

Hi everyone,

In November 2008, representatives from three sponsoring partners joined ARF staff on the George Mansford Reserve rehabilitation site at Cape Tribulation to plant a share of a 3,000 tree quota. Money raised from this GlobalGiving project (thanks to all of you) was also used to plant trees.

This is a perfect example of why GlobalGiving is so special. Your American donations went straight into the hands of the Australian Rainforest Foundation and Australian tourism partners for planting. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to working with you again this year, and making an incredible environmental impact.

More nursery work and tree planting and helping fund vital cassowary wildlife corridors and field studies, are just a few of the things your donations will help fund. Thanks and the Project Leader looks forward to...

Hi Mates!

We are having a very good planting season and we are busy revegetating the George Mansford Reserve with native rainforest trees. By extending our rainforests by planting new mixed species of rainforest trees, the ARF is helping breathe life back into the environment while recovering rare, threatened and endangered plant and animal species, including the endangered ‘Gardener of the Rainforest’ – the Cassowary.

With the rainy season fast approaching, we are planting the trees that are ready to go into the ground. Soon, our Conservation Officer will be very busy trying to keep the lush and fast growing weeds under control. This is very important in areas dominated by young trees.

We are updating the George Mansford Reserve section of the website right now and to follow the progress of site preparation and tree planting, please visit http://www.arf.net.au/mansfordreserve/index.html

Cheers Mates!

Hi Mates!

Here are some pictures of the nursery. We are now repairing and extending the George Mansford Reserve. This will provide ongoing habitat for endangered flagship species like the Southern Cassowary. The cassowary is a large flightless bird and it is known as the Rainforest Gardener because of its incredible seed dispersal abilities.

The cassowary maintains the integrity, mega bio-diversity and the soul of the rainforest. Your contributions help the cassowary and the Australian Rainforest Foundation do its job. For more info, please visit us at www.arf.net.au.

Thanks mates!

A lot of hard work has been undertaken by ARF staff in the Daintree over the past four months in preparation for the start of rehabilitation works at the George Mansford Reserve. The end of the 2007-08 wet season in April, means that we are now able to get machinery on site to deal with the weed infestation on the corner of the block. This will take place during late May 2008. In the meantime, staff has been busy building a new nursery at the ARF Daintree HQ and stocking it with a variety of rainforest species in preparation for planting on the George Mansford reserve. More than 150 different species will eventually be required for the rehabilitation works in accordance with a specific rehabilitation plan, devised by ARF scientists.

Well, we wouldn’t have rainforests without rain – and we’ve had plenty of it in far north Queensland, and particularly the Daintree region, over the past two months with record rains battering the region, flooding rivers and cutting off communities.

At one stage the wild weather isolated the towns of Port Douglas, Daintree Village and Mossman. Nearly 21 inches of rain fell in Port Douglas in 24 hrs, the deluge was the highest daily rainfall recorded since 1911 for the town (only an hours drive from the George Mansford Reserve).

We do anticipate and plan for rain in the ‘Wet Season’ but so much of it has severely delayed site preparation work on the George Mansford Reserve. ARF conservation officers have instead been concentrating efforts on the new ARF nursery, preparing seedlings for the right trees to revegetate the block.

We look forward to welcoming a group of Environmental Study’s students from Vanderbilt University in May. They are the second group to visit from the T...

In order to start the revegetation of the block in March 2008, some serious site preparation has begun. Old cattle fencing has been removed and boundary signage and fencing erected. Further scientific surveys were undertaken in November 2007, which identified weed infestation. This will be treated during the December to February period in preparation for the revegetation program scheduled for after the tropical wet season in March 2008. In addition, the ARF has started a feral pig eradication program through a contracted pig trapper. These introduced pests are a threat to cassowary young and destroy cassowary habitat.

We are also putting our University Volunteer Program into place and looking forward to the extra help on the ground. Thank you very much for your kind donations and we look forward to updating you regularly on the progress we are making--thanks to you. Cheers!