Beth's Australian Adventures: Mission Beach Field Trip- Sat 10

Mission Beach Field Trip~

At the beginning of April my Natural Resource Management class took a field trip to the Mission Beach area to study some of the practices going on up there. We got real lucky and our first stop was at the just opened Mamu Canopy Walk. This is a raise boardwalk that goes through the rainforest at approximately canopy height so you can get an awesome view of all the different species. The rainforest is currently in recovery mode from Cyclone Larry in 2006 so we were able to see some of the pioneer species and natural succession of a forest. Normally the entrance would be $20 but our lecturers worked out a deal for us to go in free as long as we "evaluated the presentation," I thought it was a great deal :)

Next up was a banana plantation, which first of all I cannot say in proper Australian English (softer a-sounds and some aussies even add an r to the end, yea they don't pronounce r's when they are really supposed to be in words but they tack on r's to words that end in vowels). Anyways, I was excited about the banana plantation because I was anxious to compare the practices here in Australia to those used by countries that supply the US with bananas. Basically I'll spare you the details but Australia has fewer ethical issues, but overall I was a little disappointed that the sustainability goal in banana farming is not more progressive.

From there we went to a sugar cane farm. The coolest things we learned about there was precision agriculture. Using GPS to track exactly where the rows of crops are located for selective application of fertilizer and pesticide based on mapping of the most productive areas and the soil types. Also, this allows for fewer passes of heavy equipment through the fields, helping to reduce soil compaction and the resulting loss of soil structure.

The last stop of Saturday was comparing two re-vegetation sites; one that had failed and one that had been successful.

We stayed at Mission Beach resort- please don't let the name fool you- they were not near resort standards. But they had clean beds and aircon so I was happy.

Sunday we went to the largest surviving fan palm forest in Australia. I'm not really sure what we learned here to be honest, but it was a real awesome place to see.

At some point we went on another walk through the rainforest and talked about the cassowary (Australia's large flightless bird, the second heaviest in the world) that is being threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. The area is called the Cassowary Coast but unfortunately we didn't see any. They are of such interest because of their visual appeal but also because they provide ecosystem services that sustain the rainforest such as scattering of seeds. Therefore, natural resources managers are unsure what the loss of cassowaries means for the rainforest.

Mission Beach is located halfway between Cairns and Townsville and that area is regarded as one of the most gorgeous regions in all of Australia (maybe even the world? I can't remember) and so it was awesome to be able to see it on a field trip of all things and to be able to learn more than I would have had I driven through just on my own.

Fan Pa lm forest