The recent bushfires in Australia were a nightmare for people as they lost welcomed the new year with a devastating loss of livelihood and also for animals who lost their shelter. Fortunately, the people and the firefighters doubled their efforts in saving their livelihood, the animals, and the trees -- especially one prehistoric tree.
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Last Thursday, Australian officials announced that specialist firefighters were successful in saving the last remaining location of prehistoric trees in the west of Sydney. The valiant firefighters used helicopters to reach 200 Wollemi Pines in a remote area within the Blue Mountain a week before this part of the country got hit by the massive wildfire.
According to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, to be able to keep the trees moist, the firefighters set up an irrigation system and pumped water daily from the nearby gorge as the wildfires inched closer to the area of the Wollemi Pines. Aside from the irrigation, firefighting planes were also deployed to strategically pour fire retardant on the fire front to be able to slow it down.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, National Parks and Wildlife Service director David Crust explains that the Wollemi Pine is an extremely important species especially since it only exists in Australia. Due to its endemism, the Wollemi Pine has a small population in the wild. Matt Kean, Environment Minister of New South Wales, agreed with Crust and said that even though some of them suffered from burns the rescue mission is a success. "These pines were able to outlive the dinosaurs, we realized we have to do everything we could to save them as soon as we saw the fires approaching," he said.
Wollemi Pine is among the creatures that are called "living fossils" but the existence of this tree was only discovered in 1994. Before that, the Wollemi Pine is only known through its fossilized form. Luckily, the fire that threatened its existence was brought under control. However, other areas are not so lucky. The fire destroyed more than 510,000 hectares of land and 90% of the 5,000-hectare Wollemi National Park (the location of the park remains a secret to help authorities protect the ancient species). The survival of the Wollemi Pine is among the few success stories after the nightmare of the Australian bushfires. As of the last report, there are 28 people dead since the fire started last September and destroyed more than 2,600 homes and 10.3 million hectares across New South Wales.
As if an answered prayer, most of the fires in several areas are now extinguished by the rain which started last week. To add to the good news, green buds and leaflets in trees have been observed to sprout after the downpour of rain -- this is a welcome sign of regrowth and hope for the community.
Wollemia pines are an interesting species because it is the only living species of its genus and the lineage of this species goes way back to the time of the dinosaurs. The Wollemia pines belong to the family Araucariaceae and there are currently 80 adult trees and 300 seedlings.