Propagate and Plant: Cassowary Conservation

#NextGenRainforestRescuers

At Rainforest Rescue, we are always inspired by the passionate suppport of our Rainforest Rescuers. I wanted to highlight the amazing work that some of our younger supporters are doing to raise awareness, specifically for the Australian Southern Cassowary.

There’s no denying it ... as the world is heating up due to human behaviour, Australian Southern Cassowary are in more trouble than ever before. Listed as endangered, there are fewer than 4,600 birds left in the wild—these living dinosaurs play a crucial role in rainforest ecology and regeneration.

One thing rainforests and cassowary do have on their side however, is our next generation ... they are showing us that action is needed over words, and Rainforest Rescue has plenty of next generation Rainforest Rescuers to celebrate.

Amber is a little lady that for over a year now has been making some positive changes in her local community, and inspiring her little sister, Penny, to follow in her footsteps! Like Amber says: “You don’t need to be a grown-up to make a difference, and you’re unique and special the way you are”.

The sisters are "a bit tree and cassowary obsessed". Once again, they've been raising awareness about Cassowaries and Rainforest Rescue in their community in collaboration with their local council.

Click on these links to check out our previous blog posts about Amber and other #NextGenRainforestRescuers:

• The Future is in Good Hands
• Amber and Penny – the Story Continues

Amber & Penny, have been at it again!

These inspiring young ladies held another community event in March, with the support of their local council – the City of Port Adelaide Enfield. The girls organised & manned a cassowary awareness table which included colouring-in activities, a raffle (with donations going towards Rainforest Rescue), and cassowary rock art painting, which proved very popular!

Amber and Penny choose to represent Rainforest Rescue, spreading awareness about the importance of rainforests and the role cassowaries play in supporting these vital ecosystems. Cassowary are a 'keystone' species, playing a vital role as a 'rainforest gardener' ... without them, the structure of the rainforest would permanently change.

Amber has made a stop motion highlighting some of the threats that Cassowaries face. She’s also working on a website focused on educating people about Cassowaries in hopes she can assist with the protection of these beautiful birds & their rainforest home.

Stay tuned to see what amazing things these incredible eco-warriors get up to next!

Rescuing and Protecting Cassowary Habitat Forever…and more 

This last year has been full of forward movement at RR and full of great conservation outcomes. Knowing that our efforts to rescue and restore habitat that Cassowaries depend on directly is a wonderful motivator. Knowing that this has farther reaching benefits makes it all the more special.

From a straight out wonderful outcome, we were able to secure Lot 46 as a Nature Refuge with a new name that was gifted by the First Nation Traditional Owners of the region - the Eastern Kuku Yalanji. They have renamed this 27 Hectare retored rainforest property Kurranji Bubu - Cassowary Land. And it is. You can see signs of cassowaries there easily from scat to scratchings...and sometimes sightings. We're not there very often but we will be camera trapping hopefully in the new year.

And then we rescued a lot of rainforest this year.

We told you about Lot 18 Cape Kimberley Rd and what a tremendous rescue that was – an intact rainforest primeval the likes of which one rarely sees outside of the National Park / World Heritage Area.

That was just shy of 9 hectares of intact Cassowary-supporting habitat.

And then we recently rescued Lot 36 Cape Tribulation Rd – adding another hectare of priceless habitat to the Cape Kimberley Wildlife Corridor – which just keeps on extending the effective protected footprint of the Daintree.

So that’s another hectare of priceless habitat that our mates the Cassowaries look to and depend upon.

And now we are about to rescue almost 7 hectares of Cassowary habitat at Lot 19 Forest Close. What makes this large parcel so wonderful – well, many things – but especially it’s connectivity to the National Park / World Heritage Area. This keystone property will connect the protected Daintree National Park to 5 previous rescues, effectively making that nature refuge a working nature corridor – with direct connectivity.

This is wonderful and I am confident that we’ll be successful in our appeal. I look forward to being able to include Lot 19 Forest Close to our list of protected forever Daintree properties.

Isn’t it amazing that the Daintree was ever subdivided in the first place? For the fact remains that when the Daintree National Park / World Heritage Area was declared in 1988, two-thirds of the lowland Daintree Rainforest was excluded from the listing.

Under the Joh Bjelke-Petersen Government, a developer bought a huge area of forest from local farmers and landholders. He subdivided it into 1,100 lots and put them on the market. Around the same time, the controversial road from Cape Tribulation was pushed through, despite the famous blockade.

Your partnership with Rainforest Rescue is directly addressing that terrible act of exceedingly poor judgement, putting profit over planet.

Together we’re making things right again.

Thank you for helping to protect this priceless habitat that the rare and threatened Southern Cassowary depends upon for its survival – and myriad other creatures! From the Spotted-tail Quoll to the Beautiful Nursery Frog – this is habitat that must be protected forever.

Respect and protect Nature.

Protect Rainforests Forever.

Links:

• Here's an overview of Lot 19 Forest Close - the next rescue