Gondwana Up in Smoke

Some of the trees growing in northwestern Tasmania have been doing so for more than 1,000 years, but the bushfires currently spreading through this part of the island have reduced these ancient stands to firewood in a matter of weeks. Lightning strikes ignited blazes earlier this month, and many are still burning out of control, threatening rare trees like the King Billy pine, pencil pine, and fagus. In a 2013 report, Tasmania’s Parks & Wildlife Service named lightning-parked fires as the biggest threat to the Tasmanian Wilderness, and conservationists are calling the current situation the “gravest crisis” this UNESCO World Heritage area has faced in decades.

The past 24 months have been the driest on record for the area, and climate change and the current El Niño certainly haven’t helped. Unlike the many ecosystems that depend on fire for renewal, for the species in these temperate rainforests, it’s a death sentence.

A NASA satellite image from January 21 shows smoke from the bushfires

Photo: Mike Bayly/Wikimedia CommonsPencil pines, endemic to Tasmania, are threatened by the fires

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