

Hi Evereone!!
Here is what I have done for my Art. It is a comic book. I am going to bring it to the airport on sunday so everyone can see it much much better.

Rainforests are being destroyed at a massive rate for many reasons. Many countries that have rainforests are poor and so they sell the land and the timber to get money to live. Poor people living in the city sometimes move to the country and may also destroy parts of the rainforests for farming. If we don’t take action the rainforests may be destroyed and many plant and animal species could become extinct. Luckily, more people are becoming aware of the need to protect the rainforests.
How to save them
· We could pay the slash and burn farmers to plant native tree crops in logged areas instead of destroying new undisturbed rainforest.
· Make National Parks where the remaining rainforests are.
· Start up tourism that isn’t destructive to bring money and to teach the people how to help sustain the rainforest.
· Give the poor people who live near the rainforest enough land elsewhere, money and employment so they don’t need to farm in the rainforest.
· The Government could create more jobs that the poor people could do by sending them to pick the rubber of rubber trees and collect the fruits off the forest floor.
· Create rainforest conservation groups and give them funds to start campaigns about saving the rainforest to educate the world.
· First world countries could reduce the debts that have to be paid by the poor countries with rainforests in them so the poor countries don’t have to use the rainforest to pay off the debt.
· Logging companies could stop destroying more trees than they need to and just take the trees that they plan to use.
If we work towards achieving some of these strategies we might be able to sustain the rainforests.
hi all have a look at these images
http://www.photoeverywhere.co.uk/west/usa/hawaii/hawaii-rainforest-national-parkDSC_3735.jpg
If you are thinking 1 year ahead, sow seeds.
Hi all here's my published narrative
The Rainforest Adventure
Luke, James and Pete were on a rainforest walk when they saw a baby gorilla. Pete suggested that they could pat it. Luke said, “Let’s try.” They went over to it and started stroking the baby gorilla. It sat down as if to say, “Keep going.” The rainforest they were in was nice and quiet. And had a wide variety of plants and animals.
They kept patting the baby gorilla but they heard a noise. It was a sort of thumping sound, then they realised what it was, and stood up. They looked around, then Pete said, “I think it’s coming from over there.”
“You are right, Pete.” said Luke. Then the mother of baby gorilla appeared on the scene. She bared her teeth as to show lots of anger they ran as fast as they could, she chased them for a long way. They didn’t notice that the mother gorilla had turned back. The only reason why they stopped was. They came to a section where the plants were the same.
“Oh, #@%*!!” said Luke.
“What?” Pete said.
Luke pointed; “This is marijuana.”
“Oh, oh,” James whispered.
Could things get any worse? Yes!
A little squeaky voice snapped, “Turn around slowly, make no sudden movements!”
They turned around and just managed to keep their laughter in. Pointing up towards them was a shotgun. At the end of it stood a tiny little dwarf and three big, drooling and growling bull mastiffs which towered over the dwarf.
“March,” the dwarf squeaked. “These dogs have killed people before. So don’t try to run.’’
They came to a little brick shed.
“In,” he ordered, and in they all went. This shed was quite dark. It had one tiny little window which had metal bars over it and a little table against the wall.
After some time they heard snoring outside the door. It sounded like the dogs. Luke looked at Pete and pointed at four loose bricks under the little table. Pete went over and gave them a gentle push. They came straight out, leaving a nice big hole. One by one they crawled though the opening, being very quiet because of the dogs.
There was a ladder going up to the roof just beside the opening. Quietly they went up the ladder. The roof was actually a helipad. And there was a steel box which they opened. It contained a beacon and a pistol. Luke put the pistol in his pocket and let off the beacon. They waited. An army chopper arrived after a long hour of waiting and took them back to their homes.
The drug squad wanted to catch the dwarf. But they never found him. Even today they don’t know were the dwarf is. The army still flies over where the marijuana used to grow, looking for the dwarf.
Rainforests are a very beautiful and important part of the world but they are being destroyed. If we continue to destroy them they will become extinct and all of the important functions that it performs will be lost forever. Tropical rainforests are particularly threatened as they have been halved over the years. Fifty two thousand square kilometres of rainforest are destroyed each year, at the rate of a football field per second and about two thousand trees per minute. Some scientists believe that at the rate humans are destroying rainforests all of them will be wiped out by the year 2050.
Logging
Logging companies cut down trees before they mature for timber. Large areas of rainforest are cut down to obtain only a small amount of timber. The machinery used to cut down the trees requires roads so more rainforest is destroyed to get to the selected trees. When the trees are cut down the soil is compacted by the machines and decreases the chance of regrowth, the chopping down of a tree also tears down all of the flora that live on it such as climbers, epiphytes and vines. When the machines take the tree from the forest it also runs over and damages other trees. Logging also triggers other causes of deforestation as the logging roads are used by farmers to gain access to the rainforest. Farmers then slash and burn it to make money keep their families alive.
Agriculture (Shifted Cultivators)
People who are very poor with no land (shifted cultivators) move into rainforest areas and make small farms. They followed the roads made by loggers into damaged rainforest areas. They create a lot of damage from the operations they perform. They move into the rainforest areas because they have had to sell their land to buy food or were forced from their own land. Many businesses such as agriculture, logging, dams, mining and industrial all are taking land from poor farmers. After a few years the soil becomes bad and they have to move on, destroying more and more of the rainforests. Logging roads lead to about 90% of the destruction caused by shifted cultivator’s.
(Cash Crops and Cattle Ranching)
Rainforest areas that have been logged and others that have been left alone are being cleared for cash crops, trees and cattle ranches. Most of the produce is for first world countries and export while the local peasants go hungry. When the soil doesn’t have enough nutrients the people leave and the ground that is left is barren has no nutrients and cannot sustain anyone or anything.
Mining
Mining has also lead to rainforest destruction due to clearing land to mine. Rainforest people are disregarded and roads are made through previously undisturbed rainforest. Huge pollution occurs from mining as they mine the materials from the rainforest.
Tourism
National Parks have helped to protect rainforests. However when they are opened paths, tracks and facilities have to be constructed to encourage tourists. Some tourists do not care about protecting the area, they may litter and may add to the destruction of the rainforests. Governments see tourism in rainforests as an easy way to get money. Ecotourism would be one way of teaching the tourists to care for the rainforest. Many companies who advertise themselves as ecotourism friendly places are often only saying that so they attract more tourists and then more money.
As rainforest destruction continues we should do as much as we can to save the rainforests.
Some groups of people have lived in rainforests for thousands of years, they have adapted to the hot humid climate. Rainforest people live in villages with the rest of their tribe. They have a deep understanding of the rainforest and how it works. They also know what plants and animals are edible and which ones to stay away from.
Rainforest people live in Africa, Asia,
Rainforest people are hunter gatherers. Some tribes use blow pipes with darts that have been dipped in poison dart frogs poison to kill the animals. The tribes hunt in groups from twenty to thirty. Some tribes in Indian rainforests clear a part of the rainforest for farming then after 2 to 3 years they abandon the land and clear another patch. The African Pygmies are very small the tallest of them being up to 1.4m tall!
Rainforest people do not live for very long, the eldest people living to just over forty years. Diseases introduced by white settlers are still big killers of tribes. Rainforest people often decorate their bodies with dyes, feathers, flowers and other materials. Rainforest people are in danger of losing their homes due to the logging of rainforests.
Some rainforest people that have lived in the past are the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans. They were big civilisations that faced problems as we do today. These included water, food and housing shortages, maybe some of these problems became too hard to overcome so they became extinct.
Rainforest people have many medicines that are from plants in the rainforest. The medicines are kept by a Shaman (medicine man) in the village.
Hopefully the rainforests will be saved so it’s inhabitants can live their for a lot longer.
Picture from: -Rafflesia_sumatra author ma_suska 2007 WikipediaFauna
Rainforests have many species of animals living in them.
Rainforests host some of the most interesting animals in the world. These animals could become extinct if we keep on destroying their habitat and poaching them. The animals in a rainforest have to have some type of protection from predators. Some animals hide, others use camouflage, some scare predators and animals also have warning colours.
The emergent layer houses animals that have great balance and are light. Many birds live in the emergent layer such as parrots, vultures, eagles and macaws. The birds perform a variety of actions that helps to sustain the rainforest. These include vultures which pick dead animals up off the forest floor and eagles which eat monkeys from the branches.
The canopy provides homes for the most animals in the rainforest. Monkeys travel along the vines and branches of trees quickly, they eat fruit, insects and small reptiles. Other monkeys are orang-utans, gibbons and spider monkeys. Sloths, iguanas and green tree pythons are some other animals inhabiting the canopy. Vine snakes are so well camouflaged that sometimes people don’t know whether it is a vine or a snake!
The understorey is home to many smaller species of animals such as the monkeys, snakes, butterflies and birds. The snakes, frogs and bats hide under leaves. The butterflies pollinate the flowers and the ants walk along the branches of trees.
The forest floor is home to large animals such as anteaters, jaguars, tapirs and capybaras and smaller ones like tarantulas and wasps. The frogs eat insects and the lizards have amazing camouflage. The jaguar is the largest animal in the Amazon rainforest and is at the top of the food chain along with the anaconda. The jaguar is now one of the many endangered animals in the rainforest. The cassowary is the largest animal in an Australian tropical rainforest but is smaller than its other Australian cousin the emu. The cassowary is very fierce with claws on its toes and when angry will attack.
The many animals that are found in Tropical Rainforests are very interesting. They are living in quite a different habitat compared with other animals in the world.
hi all here is my exposition
Josh Fogarty
PMB 104
Via
NT 0872
7 September 2009
Dear sir,
It is my belief that tourism can be good for rainforests. Tourism can be used to benefit rainforest plants and animals. Recently our class was taking about tourism and how it affects our rainforests.
Personally I think that tourism that has been setup in the right way is good for rainforests.
That means there could be paths for people to follow and areas for people to stop with compostable type toilets. These could be huts where people have lunch and listen to talks which the cleaners keep clean. There could be tour guides, equipped with First Aid, to supervise the tourists on their walks to prevent them littering, stealing or causing damage. The rainforests have paths leading to the most interesting places possible; therefore people don’t destroy the forest by making their own way through it.
Tourists can be given a seedling, that gardeners have propagated, for planting on the edge of the rainforest at the end of their walk. They can be given the opportunity to make a gold coin donation. Even though the tourists don’t have any entry fees to pay, they pay by planting seedlings, which ends up spreading our rainforests. If the tourists litter they will have to plant an extra amount of seedling. Therefore, tourism can be good for rainforests because it can increase the size of them.
The tour guide teaches kids and adults how to respect and care for rainforests appropriately.
The tour guide also teaches people how to deal with dangerous animals so that if they come across one, they know what to do. Education is the key to saving our rainforests.
It is important that we protect our rainforests and tourism is one way we can do this.
Yours faithfully,
Josh Fogarty




It was during the summer holidays 2009 in
As he walked into the kitchen, he saw a note on the table from his father John, a world famous explorer. It read,
“Important news Rick. I have gone to
“Oh blast. Why can’t Dad be home for at least tonight? He promised to take me to the movies,” Rick decided he would watch a movie, have some pizza and go to bed.
The next day when Rick was having lunch, there was a knock on the door. John came in.
“Hi, Rick. How was last night?”
“All good, Dad.”
“Rick. A new job has come up. We have to go and explore the Amazon. We leave in two days.” Rick was used to these adventures as they went on them all of the time.
“Okay Dad. Can you help me pack my clothes? I don’t know what to take.”
As the plane was taking off Rick asked John,
“Why are we going to the Amazon?” but John was busy studying a book and didn’t reply…. 14 hours later the plane landed. They boarded a light plane and flew to the starting point.
As Rick and John were walking along a path that would take them to base camp, Rick heard an earsplitting noise.
“What’s that Dad?”
“A Howler Monkey” replied John. When Rick and John got to base camp they set up everything that they would need for somewhere to sleep each night- tents, swags and a cooker. Once they had set up, John went exploring while Rick stayed at the base camp and prepared dinner. After dinner Rick went to bed while John filled out his daily exploring diary.
The next day Rick and John went exploring for the whole day. They had seen lots of things, including buttress roots, strangler figs, sloth, macaw and lots of trees that were more than 80 metres tall. When they came across a stream Rick saw a swarm of army ants close by. He called out,
“Come and look at this, Dad.” Assuming that John was following him, he crouched down to get a close up of the swarm and started to film them. When he looked around to see John he wasn’t there.
“DAD! Where are you?” There was no answer. Realising he was lost, Rick headed back the way he had came when he was walking along Rick came across a cave. He entered. While he was having a look around Rick heard some whimpering. He went a little bit deeper into the now crawling-height cave. As the cave ceiling got higher, Rick saw a Spider Monkey caught in a trap. As he looked more closely saw that it was a Red Spotted Black Spider Monkey of which there where only about three hundred left in the wild. He said to himself
“Which cursed person would do that? POACHERS?” As he freed the Monkey Rick thought, “I should be careful as the poachers could be back any minute now.”
As Rick left the cave, he saw the poachers. When he tried to get away, they caught him.
“What are you doing in the Jungle alone, boy?” the men questioned demandingly.
“I’m lost. I was walking with my Dad then he disappeared” Rick responded unaware that the men were the poachers that had set the trap to catch the animals. The men who were called Bill and Bob went into the cave and came out holding the rabbit trap.
“Is that yours?” asked Rick
“None of your business,” growled Bob.
As Bill, Bob and Rick (now with vine tied around his hands) were walking through the very sticky undergrowth towards the poacher’s base camp, Rick was trying to think of a plan. After thirty minutes of walking all Rick had done was give himself a terrible headache. When Bill, Bob and Rick got back to base camp, Bill and Bob started skinning the animals that they had caught in the traps. Rick silently smiled to himself when Bill and Bob hadn’t caught a Red Spotted Black Spider Monkey. It looked like that’s what they were trying to catch, as that is what he had freed before.
Just as they were finishing off the last animal, a group of villagers came crashing through the bush. When they saw the animal skins they instantly ran towards the men and Rick and seized Bill and Rick. But Bob escaped to find his gun. When he found his gun Bob yelled “HANDS UP!!” When the villagers saw the guns they started to run away with Bill and Rick. When Bob tried to fire the pistols there was a “Click!” instead of the expected “Bang!” The gun was EMPTY!! The villagers, realizing that the gun was empty, ran back to get Bob. Once they had captured Bob they started to head back to their village.
Midway through the return journey the villagers, Bill, Bob and Rick stopped for a break as the undergrowth was very thick and the heat was stupefying . As the group started off again a man with a huge headdress (Rick assumed that he was the Chief) started to check everyone. When he saw that Rick was handcuffed he called to his men,
“This boy doesn’t mean any harm. Free him.” When Rick was free he bowed to the chief.
When the group got to the busy village the men tied up Bill and Bob and gave Rick a present. It was a replica of the Chief’s headdress. After a few hours of explaining what had happened Rick had learnt that the Chief’s name was Olga and he had a son about his age called Songa who knew a little bit of English so he could be a translator. After all the celebrations and goodbyes Rick left the village to head back to base camp.
As he was walking back to base camp using his compass, he saw a swarm of army ants heading straight towards him! Panic stricken, he started to run in the opposite direction straight towards a stream. Forgetting about the danger of anacondas, piranhas and caimans Rick plunges straight in!
As he started to swim towards the bank after the swarm had passed, something brushed past his leg. He looked down and saw two deadly eyes - a piranha! He started to swim downstream as fast as he could. After 10 seconds of his fastest freestyle he looked back to see if it was following him. It wasn’t
“Phew” Rick thought.
As Rick turned around, he realized that he was heading for a waterway with a very fast current. As he traveled downstream he came to a giant waterfall! He struggled to swim upstream. He lost his balance and went tumbling down the waterfall then SMACK! The impact knocked Rick out for a few seconds. When he awoke, he found himself just about to be pulled under by the crashing water. Rick pulled himself up the bank and fell into an exhausted sleep for a few hours.
When Rick woke, he crawled into a nearby cave, as he was very hot. While Rick was thinking what to do, he heard a loud hissss. He pulled himself up and started to leave the cave very silently. A huge anaconda grabbed one of Rick’s legs and started to constrict it and pull the rest of his body into its grasp. While Rick was struggling he accidently kicked the anaconda’s head. In shock the anaconda let’s go of Rick who swiftly escaped.
Rick limped back into the forest bleeding from the fight with the anaconda. Suddenly a human’s voice filled the humid air
“RICK!”
“DAD!”
“Where are you?”
“Over here,” As John rushed towards Rick they rejoiced. After their joyous renunion John bandaged Rick’s leg and they slowly limped back to camp. The very next day the exhausted pair headed back to
The next day when they were leaving Rick thought
“Boy am I glad to be leaving the Amazon” as they flew away.