Restoration Completed on Two More Daintree Rainforest Properties

Restoring rainforest to its former glory takes time and lots of back-bending but the end result is incredibly rewarding said our Daintree Land Manager, Joe Reichl.

In early 2012, gifts from our donors enabled us to secure another two properties – lots 82 and 83 Rosewood Road, Cow Bay – and now just two years on we have finished restoring the rainforest.

Flora and fauna surveys of the two properties verified their high conservation value. The presence of rare plants with limited distribution (like the Rhaphidophora hayi vine), significant-sized buttress trees, and limited clearing (at the time we estimated 80% undisturbed rainforest), further increased our desire to protect this rainforest forever.

Once we had secured their purchase, restoring the cleared forest provided some interesting challenges for Joe and his team – work that they have just now completed after two and a half years of toiling in the heat and the wet.

 Joe said, “it was like someone took a cookie-cutter and removed a chunk of pristine rainforest from each property”. These ‘chunks’ were destined to be house blocks (neither were built). Instead, a massive stockpile of debris and sheds accumulated and were eventually overgrown with knee-high weeds.

What we have achieved:

• 40 tonnes of debris removed – including sheds, cement slabs, tyres, caravans, water tanks, and water tower
• 4,975m2 of land weeded
• 1.4 hectares of land planted with rainforest seedlings grown in our nursery
• 1,764 rainforest trees planted
• The equivalent of 31 days spent removing debris, weeds, and oil palms

Our purchases ensured this rainforest was not cleared and the properties are now protected forever. There is no rest for Joe and his team of volunteers and part-time staff – they are now weeding and watering trees planted at Lot 46 and removing younger oil palms. This is how we’re restoring rainforests.