By moving from a printed newsletter
to an electronic version we hope we can spread our messages further
with less impact on our environment. (However we do understand
that there are some people who prefer a printed newsletter and
if this is you or someone you know please email or call us with
your postal details.)
With an e-newsletter we also plan to bring you more news, more
often, as the ARF steps up its conservation programs and expands
its efforts to raise investment, sponsorship and donations from
corporate and private citizens.
We welcome your feedback on this
and our new look website. We also encourage you to forward this
e-newsletter to as many people as you can who you think would
like to help us save Australia’s rainforests.
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Help
Australia’s rainforests fight climate change
The Daintree rainforest
Message
from Roger Phillips, CEO Australian Rainforest Foundation
As the climate change debate warms up; and the world weighs up
the options, benefits and pitfalls of carbon offsets, the Australian
Rainforest Foundation (ARF) encourages all Australians to actively
adopt ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their daily
lives but at the same time consider contributing to programs
that benefit our natural environment for the long-term. More...
Left to right: Clive Cook (Director Northern Region
EPA), Lindy Nelson-Carr (Queensland Environment Minister)
and Roger Phillips (ARF CEO) cut a very special cake
to commemorate the hand-over of the Garners Beach cassowary
rehabilitation facility.
Big day for the cassowary
A recently arrived resident to the facility in need
of much care and attention. This mature featherless
female was found in the Mission Beach area approaching
homes for food.
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife
Service has officially handed over management of the Garners
Beach cassowary rehabilitation facility to the Australian Rainforest
Foundation (ARF).
Environment Minister Lindy Nelson-Carr said the
ARF will now assume the daily running of the world-class QPWS
facility for sick, injured and orphaned cassowaries.
Speaking after the on-site signing at Garners Beach
near Mission Beach Ms Nelson-Carr said the agreement was the
result of first-rate teamwork between the two organisations.
“This agreement with the Australian Rainforest
Foundation will enable better delivery of wildlife services in
the Mission Beach area, including a range of cassowary support
programs such as public education to raise the birds’ local
profile,” Ms Nelson-Carr said. More...
Melanie Blight from the Tour Specialists
gets into the swing of planting ‘the right tree in the right place’ after
guidance from ARF Conservation Officer, Jolyon Ritchie
(back left).
A local tour that helps save the earth
Visitors from all over the world take trips daily from Cairns
to our World Heritage Wet Tropics rainforests. But in April a
tour-bus full of locals paid their fare and headed north to get
down and dirty in the Daintree all in the name of Earth Day.
The group travelled with local tour company
Wilderness Challenge, brought together by the Australian Rainforest
Foundation (ARF) and the Tour Specialists all with one objective
in mind – to
give something back to the environment. More...
Taiga Hewett, Amos Lily and other Cow Bay residents enjoy
the ARF BBQ.
Daintree Coast residents enjoy ARF hospitality
More than 40 Cow Bay and Cape Tribulation residents
and landowners accepted the invitation by the Australian Rainforest
Foundation (ARF) to join them for a welcome BBQ at the new ARF
Conservation Centre (formerly Daintree Drifters Bed and Breakfast),
on Cape Tribulation Rd. More...
Bringing down Siam – the
King of Weeds By Steve Garrad
Green Corps workers recently teamed up with the Australian Rainforest
Foundation (ARF) as the month of May called landholders to arms
in the fight against the prickly and intrusive Siam weed.
The team was targeting 59 hectares of diverse rainforest just
east of El Arish that the ARF has recently acquired to provide
a refuge for the endangered cassowary. This block has both endangered
wetlands and rainforest with high conservation values. More...
Paul Smith, Boar Busters, checks one
of his pig–traps.
Boar Busting News with Paul Smith
As a new wave of feral pigs moves into the Mission Beach area,
residents are acting quickly to remove them before they get too
comfortable.
“The damage to gardens and infrastructure on our property
is annoying to say the least,” Jeff Ford of Mission Circle
said.
“To repair the damage and then
have the same culprits come back and do the same thing night
after night is frustrating and disheartening for us all. As
soon as we see the damage done by the pigs we call Boar Busters. More...
Former ARF Chair, George Mansford (pictured centre) with
ARF CEO Roger Phillips (right) present retiring Board member
Lestar Manning with a framed reproduction of the land title
and conservation covenant that he developed for the first
block of ARF land.
Wishing Lestar well
Earlier this year the ARF said goodbye to long-standing
Director Lestar Manning, retiring from his position after 8 years
due to the pressure of business activities. Lestar runs a specialist
planning and environment law practice in Maroochydore and Cairns
but still found the time to guide the Foundation through its
legal proceedings in the early days. Lestar drafted one of the
first conservation covenants to be applied under what was in
2001, relatively new law for Queensland. The covenants were applied
to land titles on blocks of rainforest resold by the Foundation
in the Garners Beach cassowary corridor and have been a template
for covenanting works since then. More...
Adopt a square update
The gift of a Tree for Life continues to grow,
with over 290 trees sold through the ARF Interpretive Centre
and Gift Shop since its opening in October 2006. And the great
news on the adoption of Lot 154, Cape Tribulation Road, is that
through generous donations from individuals we are well over
the half way mark on the 80,000m2 with $49,091 in adoptions to
the end of July. You
can adopt a square of rainforest by clicking here.
ARF administration assistant Sarah Habrow, shows ARF
Paton, Lynne Cosgrove around the new stock in the ARF
Cairns Interpretive Centre and gift shop.
Local artist: Henri Hunsinger
Born
in Paris, France, 1938, Henri Hunsinger began his artistic career
while travelling in the 1960s. He studied design in Canada and
has since exhibited in countries worldwide, including South America,
the USA and Canada. Henri first visited Australia in 1985, spending
18 months travelling across the country and living for a short
time in Darwin. He returned in 1989 and established himself in
Kuranda, far north Queensland, where he continues to live and
work. More...
In Brief – Next Issue
US Charity takes on ARF
USA charity consolidator Global Giving has taken on the ARF as a client enabling
US citizens to make tax deductible donations to ARF projects in Australia.
Landowners helped with weeds
The ARF is soon to launch a training and financial support program for landowners
in the Tully to Cape Tribulation sector of the cassowary corridor, to tackle
weeds on private land in or near the World Heritage Area. Information packs will
be available in soon.
Cassowary habitat purchased
The foundation has purchased 60 hectares of rainforest in El Arish, Queensland
as part of its cassowary conservation program. The land will be protected by
a conservation covenant and resold as a conservation lifestyle block to return
funds to the ARFs revolving land fund.
Bringing the rainforest back to the city
Discussions are continuing with the National Trust
NSW on a proposed joint venture to rehabilitate remnant
rainforest near Sydney.
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