Hello Mates—
We at the Australian Rainforest Foundation hope all of you had a great Holiday Season. Exciting news on the Restore Australia’s Forest after the Wildfires front! After an extensive vetting process, the completion of scientific reports and land surveys, the Australian Rainforest Foundation (ARF) has begun the ground operations in a very special place that we know you will be very proud to be apart of.

The driving mission is forest and habitat restoration including protection, extending and recovery of bushfire affected areas. Holding true to our mission, we have chosen a property at the Balook area in the Strzelecki Ranges approximately 200 km south east of Melbourne. The owner of the property, Mr. Richard Appleton, is a true conservationist and the property is composed of 42 hectors, in which 19 hectors are fully protected with conservation easements and 21 hectors with a modified easement. The number one reason why the Australian Rainforest Foundation chose this area and Mr. Appleton as the beneficiary of your generous giving and genuine concern is because this property supports populations of native wildlife, and acts as a transit corridor for other native wildlife. Given the damage to the area by the bushfires, the access by native wildlife to this habitat and the transit corridors is particularly important.

The exact location of this property is located on the northwest corner of Grand Ridge Road (a popular tourist route) and Cooks Road. To the south is Tarra Bulga National Park. A Google map search using the corner of Grand Ridge Road & Cooks Road Balook will provide a map of the area and also a remarkably clear satellite image of the property. The property supports its own populations of koalas, lyrebirds, wallabies and other native animals & birds.*** This fire destroyed close to 40% of the koala habitat in the area. The koala population in this area is very important as it is the only koala population in Victoria and South Australia that maintains its original gene pool. There have not been any koalas from other areas introduced into this region therefore keeping it genetically pure.

So GlobalGiving donors, in a nutshell, your project here is offsetting the temperate (cool) rainforest loss from the wildfires with a rehabilitation site at the edge of the fire front to give a future buffer to nearby rainforest and provide a seed bank for more extensive rehabilitation of lost rainforest. The trees being planted are less flammable than the Eucalyptus and this will help put up a great natural defense. Some of the on-ground operations will include planting 200 trees, Blackwood and Mountain Ash, at the western end, being the head of a small gully to provide a buffer against the elements. A further 300 trees will then be planted on another gully as well to provide a canopy. These trees will be Myrtle Beech and Southern Sassafras. We are also going to plant some Mountain Grey Gums (don’t know how many yet) to provide more koala habitat. Please bear in mind that there will be occasional modifications to the on-ground operations due to on-going ecological and environmental assessments.

Thank you very much mates. We will be sure to keep you up-to-date on all the on-ground work. This is a very big conservation project the Australian Rainforest Foundation and GlobalGiving donors are engaged in. And it is not an exaggeration when we say that without you, this work wouldn’t be possible. We needed you last February, March and April when together, we answered the call to help in the Aftermath, and we need you now. Mr. Richard Appleton has given all of us the opportunity to help not only him and the incredible habitat that makes up his wonderful property, but the opportunity to protect, recover and extend vital wildlife and bio-diverse habitat for future generations.
Your donations are getting trees in the ground, food for the koalas, birds and other wildlife, machinery for other site preparation work, on-going ecological surveys, wire netting tree guards and boots on the volunteers. The enclosed pictures are of Richard Appleton, the area we will be working in and around and of a big koala on the property. The next pictures will be of ground operations to date. Any questions fellow conservationists? This is your money we are working with here. We want to hear from you!! Thanks again and we will continue to do our best to make sure you are proud of the work we are doing.

Cheers,

Roger Phillips and Paul Medici

Pictures:

• Richard Appleton, Landowner and Rainforest Guardian (JPG)
• A Good Mate (JPG)