Support Operation Leap Frog in 2008 Year of the Frog Hop to your camera and then come to the exhibition Marino Moller our legal Hero2s Tourism campaign commits 2000 trees in 24 hours Where did the frog go when he was sick? US students help extend our rainforests Daintree nursery update Cassowaries, weeds and trees with Steve at Garners Beach Feral pigs targeted in the Daintree In brief Dates for your diary

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Frog faces from Holy Cross, Cairns

Join us in keeping the world's frogs alive, kicking and croaking - support Operation Leap Frog in 2008 Year of the Frog.

The Australian Rainforest Foundation officially launched Operation Leap Frog on February 29th - Leap Frog Day to support a global year long campaign by Amphibian Ark (Aark) to help prevent what could be the largest mass extinction since the dinosaurs.

The ARF was joined for the launch by 130 Cairns school children for a fun morning of; frog face painting, wildlife talks, frog tales and of course leap frog races.
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	Operation Leap Frog Australia has over 219 known frog species, over 60 of those are found in the Wet Tropics region, but over 20 species found in Queensland are listed as Vulnerable, Rare or Endangered. Our rainforest frogs are under threat from: Pollution and pesticides Habitat loss and degradation Climate change Introduced species Disease Operation Leap Frog will raise money to protect rainforest frog habitat in far north Queensland and support local scientific research and the international crisis through Amphibian Ark.

Hop to Your Camera – and then come to the exhibition

To coincide with the launch of Operation Leap Frog the ARF partnered with the Cairns Post to promote a frog photography competition with some fantastic reef and rainforest prizes, including a weekend for two at the award winning Rose Gums Wilderness Retreat.
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Marino Moller our legal Hero2s

With five offices in Far North Queensland, Marino Moller Lawyers position themselves as regional lawyers making a difference and rather than holding an annual client Christmas party in 2007, the firm presented the Australian Rainforest Foundation with a cheque for $2500 as part of their commitment to the Foundation’s Hero2 program.
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Tourism campaign commits 2000 trees in 24 hours

A world-first online tourism campaign has exceeded expectations and resulted in more than 2,000 trees being earmarked for planting in the Daintree by the Australian Rainforest Foundation.
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Where did the frog go when he was sick?

To the Cairns Frog Hospital of course.

No joke – Cairns has a frog hospital. Since opening in 1998 over 2,000 sick frogs have passed through its’ doors.

Deborah Pergolotti is the curator of the hospital and facilitator of the Frog Decline Reversal Project which as well as caring for these sick and injured amphibians is collaborating with CSIRO Livestock Industries’ Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, Sydney’s Taronga Zoo and James Cook University (JCU) to combine their research expertise and technologies to diagnose new frog diseases detected recently by the FDR project.
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US students help extend our rainforests

Environmental study’s students from Vanderbilt University in the US are among a growing group of visitors helping the ARF regenerate its’ Daintree blocks.

Following a successful first visit to the Daintree in 2007 with Cairns tour operator Wilderness Challenge, a second group of students from the Tennessee University will visit the Daintree with the company in May to check on the progress of the 2007 plantings.
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Daintree Nursery Update

With all the fantastic response to Hero2 corporate donations and strategic marketing campaigns, the ARF is working as hard and as fast as it can to finalise the Daintree nursery to ensure that the right trees are available to plant in the right place. Unfortunately, with the region currently experiencing one of its wettest Wet Seasons on record, rain and yet more rain are throwing a few obstacles in the way of ARF Daintree Caretaker, Adrian Watson and his team of local contractors.
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Cassowaries, weeds and trees

with Steve at Garners Beach

The Garners Beach Cassowary facility has three adult cassowaries in care and one chick/stripy. There has been no change in the status of any of the birds. A feeding station is also operating from this facility aiming to assist injured cassowaries.
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Feral pigs targeted in the Daintree

Government agencies have joined forces with the local community in the ongoing battle against feral pigs. Douglas Shire Council, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the Australian Rainforest Foundation have pooled resources to jointly fund the Daintree Coast Community Feral Pig trapping Program. It is through the joint funding from government agencies that we can continue to provide long term, on-going commitment to feral pig control in the Daintree. The program operating in the Daintree Coast since September 2005, aims to reduce feral pig populations and their impacts to the local area. Trapping is, at this point in time, the best practise pig control method for this area.
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Dates for your 2008 diary Earth Day  - Tuesday 22 April Schools Tree Day - Friday 25 July National Tree Day - Sunday 27 July Threatened Species Day - Sunday 7 September Roll out the green carpet – the frogs will go to the Ball !! The Operation Leap Frog Ball will be coming to you in November from Cairns – if you would like to hop on board as a sponsor and be part of this great event contact Helen on 4051 2000 now.

In Brief Workshop Attended: Daintree Caretaker Adrian Watson attended a Waterwork workshop in Mareeba on 29th February run by Nursery & Garden Industry Queensland (NGIQ). The workshop is aimed at helping Nursery operators reach best practice environmentally sustainable operations in their nursery operations. Water recycling and filtering, efficient sprinkler use and timing, flow meters, and Ph level monitoring. The ARF has adopted these standards and will be looking to gain NIASA (Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme Australia) accreditation. ARF CEO Roger Phillips said “This is very important to ARF’s future plans as it allows us to not only grow our own tree stocks for our own revegetation plans, but will enable us to supply other organisations and councils with environmentally sound seedlings for their own projects.” Second round of weed workshops: The second weed workshop was held in El Arish on 15th March, attended by 9 residents from the Mission Beach region. A date for the second Daintree workshop will be announced soon – pending a change in the weather – but certainly in the next 2 months. If you would like to put your name on a waiting list for this workshop please call Jacinta Allen on 4051 2000 or email info@arf.net.au Committed to Research Over the past 18 months the ARF has jointly funded research by the CSIRO into whether it is possible to extract DNA from cassowary dung in an effort to extend the research into field trials and help us better understand how many cassowary there might be left in the wild. The initial phase of the study has been completed and the results look promising, with field trials planned in the next phase. In collaboration with the Australian National University (ANU) the ARF has just completed funding initial research into the possibility of trapping roosting Indian Myna birds. These pests have been described as the “flying cane toad” for their ability to compete with native birds and spread disease. A prototype roost trap is likely to be tested later in 2008. Membership renewal We thank all our members for their past support and as that time of year has come for membership renewals,  we hope you will continue to support the good work the Foundation has committed to undertake over the next few years. Membership notices and invoices have recently been circulated.

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