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This news just in from Queensland!

12/12Students leave the Center for Rainforest Studies at 8:30 am A lot of tearful good-byes! Luckily, many students will spend the next few days traveling with each other.
12/11Everyone got up early (5 am) to see the sunrise at the Gillies lookout. We will spend the afternoon doing final warrowork and playing sports. Tonight's activities include a final dinner and talent show with plans to hangout by the campfire until early morning!
12/10Directed Research projects due today. Last group discussion around the campfire.
12/9One more day to work on DR project write-ups
12/8Students will spend the day writing up their DR projects.
12/7Open House! People from the community who helped students with their DR projects were invited to the Center for dinner. After dinner three DR groups presented their projects. The evening went really well and it is our way of saying thank you to the community.
12/6DR presentations today. The students will pick the three best presentations to present again tomorrow night during our open house.
12/5Last day of field research. Participated in a planting at Ross Chapman's farm. Together we planted over 600 trees.
12/4Most of the DR groups are trying to finish up their field work.
12/3The water DR group went to Cairns to work in a lab.
12/2The education DR group had a sixth grade class from Yungaburra out to the Center for a day filled with activities.
12/1Directed Research Day. This is the last week of field research. While working at the Mt. Bartle Frere area, the cassowary group found seven cassowary scats.
11/30Student day off! Trip to Mt. Bartle Frere to hike to the top of the mountain. In total, it took us about nine hours round trip to reach the highest point in Queensland (1662 meters). The students loved it, even though many of us have sore muscles!
11/29DR day. The skink group found a five foot black snake in one of their plots.
11/28DR day. Warrowork and sports in the afternoon.
11/27DR day. Thanksgiving dinner - food, friends, fun and festivities!
11/26DR day. Even with the rain (25mm), all of the groups should be able to proceed as usual. The only exception is the skink group, because skinks won't come out in the rain.
11/25Many of the Directed Research groups stayed at the Center to work on their projects.
11/24Directed Research Day. Plantation group is identifying insects they collected from a leaf litter to determine what insects are found in the area.
11/23Hike to a waterfall in the morning. Guys planning to make dinner for everyone at the Center.
11/22Another Directed Research Day. We will leave tonight for an overnight field trip past the continental divide and will get a chance to see a little bit of the Australian outback.
11/21DR day! The education group did a lesson on deforestation of the rainforest for a Yungaburra class.
11/20Case Study III exam.
11/19Review session and study time for case study III exam. Things are getting really busy around the Center as the semester nears its end.
11/18Students will spend their day off in Cairns.
11/17Will spend all day today planting on CRS property.
11/16Will spend the day clearing weeds from a site where students will plant seedlings. (It's pretty tough work!) Plant identification quiz today.
11/15Preparing site at CRS for planting. This requires a lot of hard work in hot and sweaty conditions.
11/14Trip to TREAT to help out with work on their shadehouse.
11/13Students from the Herberton School District coming out to CRS to meet the SFS students, get a tour of the site, plant seedlings, and eat Chocolate chip cookies prepared by us. While visiting, the students sang a song and read a poem, and gave us little bookmarks they made just for us. Everyone had an excellent time!
11/12Bird directed research group getting an early start at 5:00 am in order to hear the bird's dawn chorus.
11/11Trip to Barry Thurlings farm to see reforestation on agricultural land. Will spend the afternoon swimming and canoeing.
11/10Lectures in the morning. Afternoon field lecture with Tony Irvine on Plant Taxonomy.
11/9Students day off! Hoping to head to the Kurunda markets for the day.
11/8Pouring concrete for the shade house today. Planning to water recent plantings at a neighbors property. This can get very muddy and often results in mud fights!
11/7Lecture on rainforest soils. Collecting data in the field on reforestation plots around the Center. Warrowork and sport in the afternoon.
11/6Directed research day! The water quality group had a flat tire in the cruiser. Lucky for them some road crew workers gave them a hand and helped them get the spare tire on in no time!
11/5Field Trip to Eubenangee Swamp. Field Lectures on Forest Mosaics and the Role of Vertebrates in the Restoration of Rainforest. Planning to stop for a swim on the way home.
11/4Melbourne Cup (horse race) in the afternoon. This is a huge event in Australia!
11/3Lectures in the morning on Gap Dynamics and Plant Succession. More work on plant identification around the center.
11/2Students day off. Will spend the day at a beautiful spot swimming and hiking.
11/1Learning how to identify the plants and key them out on the computer. Halloween party! Everyone is planning to dress up and carve pumpkins (they are green here!) and participate in a scavenger hunt. One day late but lots of fun!
10/31Getting back into the swing of things with a new case study. Activities for today will include: morning lectures, preparations for improvements to the shadehouse, afternoon sports and time to ourselves. Today is also parents day, two parents are visiting the site!
10/25Case Study II exam. Leave for semester break! Students, staff and faculty at the Center for Rainforest Studies will be on break from Oct. 25 through Oct. 31.
10/24Will spend the day studying for the case study exam, doing warrowork, and packing for break!
10/23DR day! The "Education" group, Leah, Noel, and Mary will work on a food web game with Yungaburra's Sixth grade class. The "Bird" group, Herbie, Andrew, Sarah G., Sarah H., and Jeremy, will work on mistnetting birds in order to practice identifying, measuring and banding with John Grant.
10/22Students spend the day working on case study write-ups.
10/21Discussion group on Environmental policy. Will spend the afternoon working on case study data collection at Ross Chapman's dairy farm and have a field lecture on private economic benefits of riparian reforestation.
10/20Macro-invertebrate sampling at various waterways in the Tableland area. Invertebrate identification in the afternoon.
10/19Students Day off! Plans are to spend all day hiking in areas around the Center.
10/18Visit to an organic banana farm. Afterwards we will head back to Warrawee.
10/17Left for Babinda. Talk with Errol Wiles about benefits reforestation has for water catchments. Visit to Danny's family banana and sugar cane farm. Spotlighting for nighttime wildlife.
10/16Lectures in the morning. Warrowork and sports in the afternoon. Pack and get ready for field trip to Babinda.
10/15DR day-one group will test water in eight different places at the Tinaroo Watershed area.
10/14Students, staff and four local volunteers from WTTPS (Wet Tropics Tree Planting Scheme) plant over 700 trees.
10/13Lectures in the morning on valuing watershed services, cost benefit analysis, and traditional world views toward the environment. Fireside chat tonight with two aborigines on traditional world views towards the environment.
10/12Students day off! Some students pick strawberries while others swim at Lake Eacham. Some students hike to Gillies lookout for a beautiful view and see several hang gliders take flight!
10/11Lectures in the morning and planting maintenance field exercise in the afternoon. Australian movie, double feature tonight.
10/10Lectures in the morning. Sports and warrowork in the afternoon.
10/9Lectures in the morning along with a group discussion on sustainability. Will have a lesson on sustainability by limiting the food the students can eat. (Don't worry the students won't starve!)
10/8Must work on Directed Research all day.
10/7Another afternoon field trip. We will be visiting the Bromfield Swamp with guest lecturer Mark Heaton.
10/6Lecture on water catchment management and aboriginal land management with George Davis. Afternoon field trip to George Davis' land.
10/5Students day off. Everyone will be heading to Emerald Creek Falls for hiking and swimming.
10/4Working on directed research all day out in the field
10/3Students take case study exam in the morning. Will spend the afternoon doing warrawork and playing sports.
10/2Reviewing for the case study exam. Will have the afternoon to study!
10/1Spent the day working on case study project write-ups.
9/30Bird Quiz before breakfast. Another field exercise, conducting cassowary scat surveys. Spent time working on DR proposal write-ups.
9/29Students conduct cassowary scat surveys and work on DR (directed research) proposal write-ups.
9/28Hooray! Students day off!
9/27Field exercise on cassowary surveys in the Bartle Frere area. A couple of students had run-ins with stinging trees.
9/26Lectures on economics of biodiversity and environmental policy in ecotourism. Warrawork and sports in the afternoon.
9/25Caught four rodents (two different species) in our live traps.
9/24Visited C4 Community Conservation in the morning for a lecture and a video. Headed home after lunch. In the afternoon, field exercise on vertebrate field methods (trapping techniques).
9/23Hiked with Joan through Tam O'Shanter State forest looking for signs of cassowaries. Two sightings and many signs of them.
9/22Packed up and left for Mission Beach. After lunch, field lecture with Joan Bentrupperbaumer on management issues in coastal cassowary habitat. Spent the rest of the afternoon hiking to Kennedy Bay study area. Watched Joan's slide show on cassowaries.
9/21Students day off! Spent the day at Lake Eacham relaxing and swimming. Need to check skink pitfall (traps) and pack for Mission Beach field trip.
9/20Early morning mistnetting (banding birds). We will be able to practice identifying the different birds of the Australian Rainforest. Students get to go into town for the first time tonight.
9/19Mistnetting birds at 5:30 am. Warrowork which means "cleaning up the site" in the afternoon along with playing sports like Ultimate Frisbee and swimming in Lake Eacham.
9/18Attended field lecture on Wet Schlerophyll Forest and a special lecture on endangered species in the wet tropics forest by special guest, Dr. John Winter.
9/17Spent the morning mistnetting birds. We were able to band about ten birds in all! Attended field lectures in the “Stockwellia” forest.
9/16Lectures in the morning on forest fragmentation. Took a trip after lunch to Toohey’s Creek Corridor to learn about forest corridors and how they help wildlife.
9/15Went on a bird walk before breakfast. Attended lectures all day on various topics ranging from ecological economics and Australian bio-geography to writing and critiquing a scientific paper.