One of Australia’s most unique and endangered ecosystems, Mabi Forest, has largely disappeared. Landholders can play a critical role in conservation efforts.

Mabi Forest is a critically endangered forest type that is only found on the Atherton Tablelands. It is a semi-evergreen forest that occurs on fertile basalt soils in upland areas where the rainfall is below 1600mm.

This type of forest is home to a high diversity of plants and animals but due to historical land clearing – for timber and later for agriculture – there is now less than four per cent of original Mabi Forest standing. Collectively, that’s about 900 hectares and most of this is in isolated fragments.

The Forest Resilience project is funded by the Australian Government’s Saving Native Species program.

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If you live in or near Mabi Forest, there are things you can do to help:

• Remove weedy species from your property.
• Don’t dump garden waste at the edges of forest.
• Keep stock away from remnant Mabi Forest.
• Limit tracks through the forest.
• Consider placing any Mabi Forest on your property under a voluntary conservation agreement.
• Extend Mabi Forest on your property through restoration planting to help buffer and reconnect pockets of remnant forest. Talk to your local landcare group, e.g. Barron Catchment Care, TREAT or the Tree Kangaroo
  and Mammal Group.
• Financial incentives may be available to landholders restoring endangered forest types. Talk to us at Terrain NRM. Incentives include emerging biodiversity credit schemes, such as Cassowary Credits, which reward landholders for undertaking restoration activities.

18 October 2021

A new $250,000 grants round is opening for threatened species recovery team members and landholders with priority areas of rainforest in the Wet Tropics region.

Terrain NRM is contacting landholders who have properties with large areas of cassowary habitat or coastal rainforest, or even small patches of critically-endangered Mabi forest.

Grants for tree-planting, weed removal, nature refuges

The grants are for tree-planting, weed removal and nature refuge projects. They are part of Terrain NRM’s Building Rainforest Resilience Project.

Project coordinator Tony O’Malley said landholders and recovery group members had achieved strong results in the first two rounds of grants – with buffer zones and corridors planted for world-heritage rainforest, weeds removed ranging from guinea grass to raspberry, and the creation of nature refuges in Kuranda and Mission Beach.

“Last year, the landholders and recovery groups involved in this grants program achieved weed management work on more than 50 hectares of priority habitat, revegetation projects on over 17 hectares and 150 hectares of voluntary habitat protection agreements,’’ Mr O’Malley said.

Landholders enthusiastic about improving habitat

“The enthusiasm of the people we’ve been working with has been inspiring. Landholders are telling us the funding enabled them to improve their habitat so it’s looking the best it has in years, and they’re proud of the importance of their place to threatened species.”

Queensland Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon has committed $3 million in funding for local-scale water quality monitoring in the Tully and Johnstone catchments.

This funding is to continue the water quality monitoring undertaken over the last four years as part of the Wet Tropics Major Integrated Project. The project has achieved unprecedented buy-in from the local community on water quality issues through bringing together Tully and Innisfail Canegrowers and the Australian Banana Growers, farmers, scientists, industry experts and Traditional Owners.

The grassroots, farmer-led monitoring program is answering growers’ questions about water quality by directly sharing locally relevant, nutrient, sediment and pesticide data from local catchments.

“Growers value and appreciate high quality local data that’s provided within useful timeframes. The local-scale monitoring of streams, paddock run-off and ground water enables us to build understanding about pollutant loss pathways and helps growers make informed paddock management decisions,” said MIP Water Quality Project Leader, Alicia Buckle.

Grower Services Manager from Canegrowers Innisfail, Deb Telford, said: “The Local Scale Monitoring program had such an impact in our district. To stop the momentum of this project would have been disappointing. This announcement today is exciting and is a positive step forward for the next three years. Grower engagement for this project has been encouraging and successful, we’ve had growers say we should have had this 10 years ago.”

Landholders are helping the Far North’s iconic rainforests and cassowaries by joining a strategic action to connect forested areas from the Daintree to Hinchinbrook.

Green corridors have been prioritised across the region and landholders are working with natural resource management organisation Terrain NRM and with community groups to buffer world heritage rainforest and to “fill in the gaps”.

Grants for revegetation, weed management and habitat protection are part of Terrain’s Building Rainforest Resilience Project. Two hundred and fifty property owners in important cassowary, Mabi forest and littoral rainforest areas, and members of threatened species recovery teams, were invited to apply in the first round.
A new grants round is coming up.

In the Daintree and greater Douglas Shire

Bloomfield’s Mt Louis Station manager Ben Morley is one of two Daintree graziers targeting weeds on the edge of the rainforest, while Douglas Shire Council has planted over 1000 trees in the Wangetti area.

Ben and Courtenay Morley have been creating buffer zones for world heritage rainforest and easy access for cassowaries, by removing woody weeds from non-grazing sections of the station along Gap Creek and at the base of Mt Louis and Mt Annie.

“The results have been fantastic. We usually only focus on the paddocks but after getting support, we’ve cleaned up 10 to 12km around the base of the hills and about 12km on both sides of the creek,’’ he said. “Among other environmental benefits, the cassowaries now have easy access to water and feed. We’ve learned more about them too, and we document sightings on the station.”

The Douglas Shire Council has planted 1000 trees and managed weed outbreaks in open areas around Wangetti to connect littoral rainforest patches and extend habitat for cassowaries. Both littoral rainforest and cassowaries are listed nationally as endangered.

In Kuranda

Nevenka Salinovic says tree-planting and weed management work on her family’s 130-hectare property has opened her eyes to the possibilities – and to cassowaries crossing the land.

“Our property backs onto world heritage areas on all sides, and includes pockets of remnant rainforest,’’ Ms Salinovic said. “Getting help with weed management and what trees to plant on the edges of the rainforest and sloping creek banks has been invaluable.”

The family has also been working with Kuranda Envirocare on the project, which has involved slashing and spot-spraying large areas of weeds including guinea grass, prickly raspberry and lantana, and selecting cassowary food trees for future plantings.

“It has been rewarding. We’ve found native trees in under and amongst the weeds, so we won’t have to plant completely from scratch. We knew a bit about cassowaries beforehand but not what they liked to eat and how to plant for their feeding needs throughout the year. Now we are seeing where they come and go – they seem to use our place as a path through to other rainforest.”

The Salinovic project, along with two other weed removal and tree-planting grant projects supported by Terrain NRM and Kuranda Conservation, is helping to restore the Black Mountain cassowary corridor. This corridor is one of the Cassowary Recovery Team’s top priorities.

On the Atherton Tableland

Landholders Louise and John Gavin live on a rural residential property adjoining world-heritage rainforest and endangered Mabi forest.

Ms Gavin said creating a green buffer zone for surrounding national park was their way of giving back to the environment and the farming community.

“We’ve only lived in the region for three years and we had no idea before this that there was a type of rainforest – Mabi forest – that was critically endangered,’’ she said. “It’s really good to be able to have a small project here that fits into the bigger picture of connecting forested areas.”

Three hundred Mabi trees have been planted on the Gavin’s property, with the help of local conservation group TREAT, to improve a revegetation site begun 10 years ago on the land. Weed control has also been a big part of the new project.

“Small grants like this give individual landholders a chance to help build the resilience in pockets of Mabi forest,’’ she said. “It’s a way for landholders like us to do something to balance the eco-system and help others to keep farming their land.”

In the Malaan area, Michelle Bradley has used her grant to kickstart a Himalayan Magnolia and bamboo removal project.

“They’re a really nice tree (magnolias) but in this environment they were taking over everything,’’ she said.  “We’ve gone from one or two appearing out the front to a tight copse of magnolias that nothing can get through. It’s a big job now to remove them all.”

The Bradleys live in the Malaan cassowary corridor, which is the upland part of Australia’s longest and widest east-west rainforest corridor.  They are planting cassowary-friendly trees to replace the magnolias.

Iconic fish species including Jungle Perch, Barramundi, Mangrove Jack and Tarpon will have a better chance of survival and growing their populations in the Murray and Lower Herbert Basins thanks to a new $5 million project announced by Federal Environment Minister, Sussan Ley.

The project, to be delivered by Terrain NRM, will focus on improving the condition of upstream wetland and nursery areas and on removing barriers that stop juvenile fish moving from spawning areas in the estuaries to nursery areas upstream.

Terrain NRM CEO Stewart Christie said the coastal areas south of Tully to Hinchinbrook include nationally significant wetlands and pockets of endangered coastal ecosystems that are home to an array of bird species as well as fish.

“While both the Murray and Lower Herbert catchments are relatively intact, they are at risk from weeds, feral pigs and other threats, and these need to be managed effectively to maintain the health and condition of these valuable ecosystems.

“We will be working with a large number of partners in the delivery of this project including farmers, landholders, traditional owners, Local Government and local community organisations. The first few months will involve detailed planning and consultation with scientists as well as Traditional Owners and landholders with knowledge of the local landscape.

“Some of the activities that we’ll be undertaking include managing weeds and feral pigs, addressing fish barriers, improving management of drains and farm creeks and getting the community involved in activities such as ‘Adopt a Creek’ or ‘Adopt a Wetland’.”

The Wet Tropics has the highest diversity of fish in Australia with over 80 recorded species. While the habits of many species are not well known it’s estimated that up to 50 per cent of these species need to move between freshwater and estuarine environments for spawning and larval development.

A dream of getting Mabi rainforest off the ‘endangered’ list is a step closer for Tablelands residents.

Barron Catchment Care volunteers are planting more rainforest trees – this time 2000 of them in state forest previously used for pine plantations.

The group’s acting coordinator Sheryl Fitch said it was exciting to see the trees growing so strongly.

“They were planted in April and some are already waist-height,’’ she said.

“Months ago, there was head-height guinea grass, lantana and tobacco bush there. This started out as a pretty daunting project with the land the way it was and with coronavirus, but somehow we’ve managed to beat the odds.”

When a community tree planting was cancelled because of coronavirus restrictions, the group dug into project funding to engage NQ Land Management Services for the spraying and planting work. The project is part of a larger ‘Rebuilding Rainforest Resilience’ program supported by Terrain NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

Terrain’s Tony O’Malley said only four per cent of original Mabi forest remained.

“It’s a critically endangered rainforest ecological community that’s only found on the Tablelands in North Queensland, mainly in Curtain Figtree National Park and Wongabel State Forest. What is left is highly fragmented and just under half of it is on freehold land.”

Endangered cassowary and Mabi rainforests are the winners in four new projects for the Far North.

Terrain NRM has awarded grants to Barron Catchment Care, Kuranda Conservation, C4 and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service for work to extend wildlife corridors and create nature refuges.

Terrain’s Tony O’Malley said the $120,000 investment in rainforest restoration, protection and expansion was focused on land in the Kuranda, Tablelands, Innisfail and Tully regions.

“These projects are all in priority locations identified by the cassowary and Mabi recovery teams for revegetation, weed management and habitat protection,’’ he said. “The work will benefit a whole range of rainforest species because of the strategic locations.”

More than 100ha of private land on four properties in the Kuranda region’s Black Mountain Corridor will become nature refuges as part of the project. On the Tablelands, hundreds of trees will be planted to extend Mabi rainforest in a forestry lease area being transferred to national park, and in the Innisfail-Tully region highland-lowland wildlife corridors will be extended at Smith’s Gap and Eubenangee.

The projects are supported by Terrain NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

Kuranda Conservation’s Jax Bergersen said her group would be working with landholders and Queensland Trust for Nature to create nature refuge agreements over large blocks of land in critical endangered cassowary habitat.

“We are working to link a very narrow part of the Wet Tropics world heritage rainforest area with prime ecological blocks of land to make a wider endangered cassowary corridor,’’ Ms Bergersen said. “We’ll be starting with four properties but there are another 20 in the wings thanks to the interest of landholders in this region.

“With ‘nature refuge’ status on land titles, rainforest can be better protected into the future. We’re aiming for a cassowary corridor stretching 100-200km from Julatten to the Barron Gorge National Park.”

C4 president Peter Rowles said his group would be revegetating another hectare of land on a property in the Smith’s Gap wildlife corridor near Tully, where more than 2000 rainforest trees have been planted since it was bought by C4 and Queensland Trust for Nature last year.