Rainforest Live '97 Journals from Queensland, Australia

  From the week ending February 7, 1997

Upon First Arrival at the Center
by Melissa Barker

After an extremely long flight we finally arrived in Carins, Australia. There we meet the rest of our group and jumped into two vans and a cruiser to head up to the center. The site consists of one main building with a classroom, computer room, kitchen, common room and staff offices. We live in cabins of eight students. The first day at the center we worked with an organization called "TREET" that does reforestation in Queensland. They have been working on reforesting a corridor of land for the past 3 years. We helped plant, multch and water the remaining area of the corridor. It was a great chance to get right into the environment and to talk to some people who are native to the area. Classes began on Tuesday morning. In the afternoon we explored some of the rainforest on site. We examined each level of succession. We also saw a great example of a strangler fig. This species drops a seed in the top of a tree. Then it grows roots down towards the ground while strangling the host tree. Eventually the fig kills the host tree and the result is an amazing conglomeration of interconnected roots. We also saw two more examples of strangler figs today, the Cathedral and Curtain Figs. They were both over 50 meters tall and over 500 years old.

My first Look at the Rainforest
by Christina Gettelfinger

After crossing the International Dateline we became half a day ahead of the U.S., so we're already getting a head start on learning. Our first project was to plant trees with the TREAT organization to help complete Donaghy's Corridor. A corridor is a length of habitat that links two similar habitats together and it provides a refuge for animals to travel back and forth. One of the important features of Donaghy's Corridor is that it will help save a cassowary, a six foot bird much like an ostrich.

After we planted trees we went to Lake Eacham for a refreshing swim. Lake Eacham is a 180 foot lake that used to be a volcanic crater. We also saw Malanda Falls, a small waterfall that is a popular swimming spot for the locals. So far we have taken several nature hikes and have seen many interesting trees such as the Strangler Fig, Kauri Pines, and the Silver Quandong. The interesting animals we have seen are Brush Turkeys, Moorhens, pythons, and terrestrial leeches.

We have just started our academics and our first case study involves the effects of reforestation. The weather has been warm, the sky is mostly cloudy, and it rains everyday, but our group's spirits are high and we are excited to learn.

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