Thiaki Restoration Research Project - 27,000 Rainforest Trees planted in one week!

Cyclone Yasi brought a challenge to the supple young seedlings. On the 2nd of February, Category 5 Yasi crossed the coast a few minutes south of our latitude, devastating parts of Innisfail, and all of Tully and Cardwell, which are in the early stages of recovery. We were very fortunate in that the wind, while very strong as we were near the eye, caused only limited damage to the forest. The seedlings were tossed and turned, but the grass strips between rows appear to have reduced the damage. Not so for the sugarcane, banana, papaya and other fruit and vegetable growers more in the path of cyclone Yasi. We wish the people who have suffered a speedy recovery and hope for the future.

We celebrated the last of 27,000 rainforest trees planted on 28th January 2011. It was a major effort done by Outland Resources over 4.5 days with the assistance of a small army of people. Researchers and volunteers from the University of Queensland and Charles Darwin University sorted the plants and helped get them ready for the planters, and then mapped them after planting. The plants were grown to healthy seedling stage by Tablelands Community Revegetation Unit Nursery, Timberglades Nursery, Yuruga Nursery and Cassowary Coast Regional Council Nursery - a huge thanks to the nursery-people. We had over 2 months of good rain prior to planting, it stopped raining the day before planting and started raining (lightly) the day after we finished, with Cyclone Anthony pulling the rain away from us.

Layout of 64 plots and spraying of 56 plots to inhibit aggressive pasture grasses were completed by early January. We used a partial spraying method which reduces the volumes of herbicide used, and reduces soil erosion on these steep slopes. This method has resulted in a large-scale 'installation' on the property. Spraying was done by a team of people, taking advantage of morning breaks in the storms of the build-up to the wet season.

Our latest papers:

Preece, N. D., G. M. Crowley, M. J. Lawes, and P. van Oosterzee. 2012. Comparing aboveground biomass among forest types in the Wet Tropics: small stems and plantation types matter in carbon accounting. Forest Ecology and Management 264:228-237.

 

Preece, N. 2011. Book Review: Tropical Forest Community Ecology, WP Carson & SA Schintzer. Austral Ecology 36:e48-e49.

van Oosterzee, P, Preece, N, Dale, A. (2011 Forthcoming). 'An Australian landscape-based approach: AFOLU mitigation for smallholders'. In: Wollenberg, E, Nihart, A, Tapio-Bistrom, ML, and Grieg-Gran, M, eds, Climate Change Mitigation and Agriculture. Earthscan, London. UK.

Preece N. & van Oosterzee P. (2010) Continuing loss of tropical forests on agricultural land could be reversed by carbon credit trading. In: ESA10: Ecological Society of Australia, 2010 Conference; Sustaining Biodiversity - the next 50 years, Canberra.

Preece N., van Oosterzee P. & Preece L. (2010) Improving estimates of above-ground biomass in tropical forest using modified transect methods. In: ESA10: Ecological Society of Australia, 2010 Conference; Sustaining Biodiversity - the next 50 years, Canberra.

Preece N., van Oosterzee P., Mayfield M. & Erskine P. (2010) Cost-effective tree-planting to reforest the tropical landscape. In: ESA10: Ecological Society of Australia, 2010 Conference; Sustaining Biodiversity - the next 50 years, Canberra.

Preece N., Harvey K., Hempel C. & Z.Woinarski J. C. (2010) Uneven distribution of weeds along extensive transects in Australia’s Northern Territory points to management solutions. Ecological Management & Restoration 11: 127-134.

van Oosterzee, Penny, Noel Preece, Allan Dale (2010) Catching the baby: accounting for biodiversity and the ecosystem sector in emissions trading.in Conservation Letters 3:83-90 at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118902559/home

Preece N. (2010) Norman River floods of 2009 devastated grass, cattle and native fauna. Australian Rangeland Society http://www.austrangesoc.com.au/site/memb_newsletter.php?id=10#article_50 11 April 2010

Mayfield M. M., Bradshaw C. J. A., Chittleborough D. J., Erskine P. D., Gardner T. A., Lawes M. J., Menendez R., Preece N. D. & van Oosterzee P. (2009) Identifying cost-effective reforestation approaches for biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration in the Australian tropics. In: 10th International Congress of Ecology (INTECOL), 16 – 21 August 2009, Brisbane, Australia.

van Oosterzee P., Preece N., Dale A. & Kay G. (2009) Lessons from doing - Implementing a regional scale biocarbon & GHG abatement project with multiple benefits. In: 10th International Congress of Ecology (INTECOL), 16 – 21 August 2009, Brisbane, Australia.

Preece N. D. (2009) Historic Australian indigenous savanna management is relevant for contemporary ecosystem management. In: 10th International Congress of Ecology (INTECOL), 16 – 21 August 2009, Brisbane, Australia.

van Oosterzee P. & Garnett S. T. (2008) Seeing REDD: Issues, principles and possible opportunities in Northern Australia. Public Administration and Development 28: 386-392.