Center for Rainforest Studies
October 9, 2007
Academic News
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Rainforest Restoration |
Six hundred trees have been planted by students on the Center's property in the last few months. At this time of year in the Queensland Wet Tropics, where the Center for Rainforest Studies is situated, it is dry. The Center is blessed with a permanent creek from which it can draw water for irrigation. The reforestation is part of the Socio-economics course dealing with 'Effective and Efficient Restoration.' The Center won't be undertaking any more plantings until February 2008, the next wet season. However, the Center is planning ahead. Socio-economics students have undertaken a planning exercise that maps areas to be reforested next year. Also planned are the number of trees required, together with the labor hours and cash costs required for site preparation, planting, and maintenance. The restoration project will increase the biodiversity on the property. Moreover, the restoration will also sequester large amounts of carbon and thus mitigate global warming. The significance of the conservation of forest on Warrawee has been highlighted by SFS student Clare Tochilin. She showed that the rainforests at the Center presently sequester some 12,000 tons of carbon. Using Stern Review estimates, this avoids damage to the world economy approaching $1,000,000 (USD). Dr. Colin Hunt, Socio-economics and Environmental Policy Faculty
Student Reflections
Jess and Ian, our ecology teacher and intern, set up the harp bat trap to try to catch some bats by Jess's cabin. The next morning we awoke to find 17 microbats. Fourteen of these bats were little bent-wing bats. They are about the size of your
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Photo by Brian Quarrier shows student measuring bat's wingspan. |
thumb. The harp trap works by having a metal frame that has two layers of fishing twine and around 50 strings on each side strung about three centimeters apart from each other. The idea of the trap is that the bat will fly along, hit the fishing twine, and fall into a catch bag down below. The bats cannot get out of these catch bags. In the morning, Jess checked on the trap and put the bats into catch bags to be measured, weighed, and sexed that night. During the day, the bats go to sleep in their catch bags. Around seven o'clock that night, Ian showed us how to do all of the measurements. The bats were extremely cute and very soft. Each bat had its forearm measured, its weight taken, and was sexed. Once this was done, a picture was taken of the bats' wingspan (see photo) so future measurements could be done on the computer. Then, the bats were fed a honey water to give them energy. Once the bats tasted the water they would suck spoonfuls down. Once the bat had enough to drink we would release it and track its sonar calls with a sonar detector to get an idea of how long it would take the bat to orient itself. Ian was great and let all of us try measuring and weighing the bats. It was a great experience on what some fieldwork involves. Brian Quarrier, Bates College
Things have been getting interesting here in the middle of the rainforest as class work has finally kicked into high gear and we are beginning to realize the extent of what we signed up for. Last week we spent three days in the field setting up and checking skink traps in two rainforest fragments, spotlighting at night for whatever mammals might grace us with their presence, and this week we worked in groups planning a restoration project on the CRS property. Some of us got our first taste of scientific paper writing when Jess, our Rainforest Ecology professor, had us write up a report on the fragmentation experiment we conducted the week before. It has been a harrowing experience, and some of us have gone a little loopy in the process, but don't worry Mom and Dad, we are learning! To keep sane we've made a few trips off of the property and gotten a taste of authentic Australia. Saturday night was movie night at the Majestic Theater in Malanda (‘Ratatouille,' they are a little behind the times over here). Thursday we saw an authentic drumming circle at Lake Barrine, and we are still smiling about our night in Cairns and the visit to the Great Barrier Reef last weekend. We got a chance to dine out, meet the locals, and not have to worry about spiders in our bed or snakes biting our feet on the way to the bathroom for once. Of course, the reef wasn't too bad either! We are now eagerly awaiting Tuesday morning when we will officially be done with these papers and will be heading out to Chillagoe for our Outback experience. Cheers from Down Under! Deanna Eickhoff, University of Redlands