Protect a Rainforest

Thank you for adopting rainforest and assisting Rainforest Rescue us to purchase and protect vulnerable areas of tropical rainforest from development forever! Your support is making a significant impact assisting Rainforest Rescue to make great progress on large scale rainforest restoration.  Your precious contributions are propagating rainforest seedlings which are tirelessly planted on Daintree lands by our staff and volunteers –  in the last six months to see 8,288 trees planted on Lot 96 in Cape Tribulation, Daintree! We are pleased to report that with this number of tree planted this year, all areas requiring regeneration on Lot 96 Cape Tribulation, Daintree, are now fully planted out with matured seedlings and this stage of its restoration is now complete!

In May this year, volunteers travelled from far and wide to participate in Rainforest Rescue’s annual community tree planting weekend, which saw over 2,000 of the 8,288 trees planted on Lot 96 – a tremendous effort! Many of the 20,000 seedlings propagated annually at the Rainforest Rescue Daintree Nursery certainly got put to good use in this planting session!  Joe Riechl, our Land Manager in the Daintree, tells us that “…(the seedlings) have grown so much, some are almost waist high now.” After a lot of watering and weed control since May, the little rainforest trees are now thriving! Thank you so much for helping Rainforest Rescue to reach this wonderful milestone for Lot 96!

Such significant environmental restoration simply would not be possible without your continued support. The reason the regeneration of this land is so vitally important is because the Daintree Rainforest is home to 12 of the world's 19 primitive plant families, the highest concentration on earth! Overall, it maintains an amazing variety of plants and animals, including 122 rare, threatened and endangered species. Many of these species are 'endemic' to the region meaning that they are found nowhere else on the planet.

Your support helps to protect these beautiful species! Every tree planted in the ground to protect these extraordinary species’ habitat in the Daintree costs $10 and this helps secure a bio-diverse future for this unique rainforest! You are assisting us to undertake this important conservation work and plant these trees. It would not be possible without your generous support. Thank you.

The restoration season is in full-swing in the Daintree with the Rainforest Rescue crew busy propagating and caring for rainforest seedlings.

As all trees planted by the Rainforest Rescue crew and volunteers are grown at our nursery, the Nursery Manager must ensure at least 20,000 seedlings are propagated annually. Most will be planted on sites we are restoring and a small quantity will be sold to local land holders restoring their own Daintree rainforest properties.

“Seeds are collected in the later part of the year when trees are fruiting; all are from the Daintree lowlands rainforest ensuring local provenance.

“Before restoring each property, we survey it and record the plant variety – helping us plan the appropriate species mix” said Joe Reichl, Land Manager.

Nursery success story

At any given time, there are approximately 6000 potted plants within the nursery shade house, and around 4000 in the sun hardening area. Propagation requires the collection of local seeds which are then sorted and catalogued prior to being sown for the germination process.

The nursery has propagated 204 rainforest species. This is definitely a ‘success story’ as not all rainforest seeds germinate easily, and many seeds are available only intermittently.