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A specially deployed team of remote air firefighters helped save the trees from the giant Gospers Mountain fire
Firefighters have saved the only known natural stand of Wollemi pines, so-called "dinosaur trees" that fossil records show existed up to 200m years ago, from the bushfires that have devastated New South Wales.
The state's environment minister, Matt Kean, said a specially deployed team of remote air firefighters helped save the critically endangered trees from the giant Gospers Mountain fire.
The pines are in an undisclosed sandstone grove in the Wollemi national park, in the Blue Mountains, about 200km north-west of Sydney. They were thought extinct until discovered 26 years ago.
Kean said with fewer than 200 of the trees left in the wild the government had to do everything it could to save them, describing it as "an unprecedented environmental protection mission".
He said the operation by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and NSW Rural Fire Service included air tankers dropping fire retardant and specialist firefighters being winched in by helicopter to set up an irrigation system in the gorge. As the fire approached, helicopters water bucketed the fire edge to reduce its impact on the groves of trees.
A scientific assessment found while some of the trees were charred the species would survive in the wild. Kean said the government would continue to keep the precise location of the trees secret to ensure their long-term protection.
In both botanical and popular literature the tree has been almost universally referred to as the Wollemi pine, although it is not a true pine (genus Pinus) nor a member of the pine family (Pinaceae), but, rather, is related to Agathis and Araucaria in the family Araucariaceae. The oldest fossil of the Wollemi tree has been dated to 200 million years ago.
A brief blog entry with some photos on how the trees look in wilderness.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday January 16 2020, @10:29PM (2 children)
Next pass by google aerial photo plane will show the only green patch in the 500,000ha National Park, as a huge percentage has been burned. [smh.com.au]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @07:45PM (1 child)
So were the firefighters sitting for a really long time too?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday January 18 2020, @09:56PM
The entire area is extremely inaccessible, with no roads and very few walking tracks. Even flying helicopters or planes over won't neccessarily find a fire, especially if it is burning in the understory.
It only went wild after several extremely hot, windy days, when the fire reached the canopy. Even then, the only way to fight it was from the air. Alot of preparation had gone in to the area where these pine trees grow, including installing water tanks and irrigation lines, so no, the firefighters weren't just sitting. At the same time, over 100 fires were burning in the state, so many were quite busy elsewhere.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex