澳大利亞消防員拯救了世界上唯一的史前沃勒米松樹林

澳大利亞消防員拯救了世界上唯一的史前沃勒米松樹林

It was a lifesaving mission as dramatic as any in the months-long battle against the wildfires that have torn through the Australian bush.

這是一項(xiàng)拯救生命的任務(wù)，與在澳大利亞森林大火中持續(xù)數(shù)月的戰(zhàn)斗一樣引人注目。

But instead of a race to save humans or animals, a specialized team of Australian firefighters was bent on saving invaluable plant life: hidden groves of the Wollemi pine, a prehistoric tree species that has outlived the dinosaurs.

但是，澳大利亞一支專門的消防隊(duì)員隊(duì)伍并沒有展開一場拯救人類或動物的競賽，而是決心拯救寶貴的植物生命:隱蔽的沃勒米松林，這是一種比恐龍還古老的史前樹種。

Wollemia nobilis peaked in abundance 34 million to 65 million years ago, before a steady decline. Today, only 200 of the trees exist in their natural environment — all within the canyons of Wollemi National Park, just 100 miles west of Sydney.

沃勒米松樹林在3400萬到6500萬年前數(shù)量達(dá)到頂峰，然后穩(wěn)步下降。今天，在自然環(huán)境中僅存在200棵-都在悉尼以西僅100英里的沃勒米國家公園的峽谷中。

The trees are so rare that they were thought to be extinct until 1994.

這些樹非常稀有，人們認(rèn)為它們在1994年之前就已經(jīng)滅絕了。

That's the year David Noble, an officer with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, rappelled into a narrow canyon and came across a grove of large trees he didn't recognize.

就在那一年，新南威爾士州國家公園和野生動物管理局的工作人員戴維·諾布爾進(jìn)入一個狹窄的峽谷，偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了一片他不認(rèn)識的大樹林。

Noble brought back a few twigs and showed them to biologists and botanists who were similarly stumped.

諾布爾帶回了幾根樹枝，并把它們展示給同樣被難住的生物學(xué)家和植物學(xué)家。

A month later, Noble returned to the grove with scientists. It was then that they realized what they had found: "a tree outside any existing genus of the ancient Araucariaceae family of conifers," the American Scientist explains. The trees are tall and can reach 130 feet high in the wild. They have thin, fragile bark covered in dark brown nodules that give them a sort of "bubbly" appearance. They bear cones that appear at the end of their branches, and the trees are monoecious, meaning that each plant has both male and female cones.

一個月后，諾布爾帶著科學(xué)家們回到了小樹林。就在那時，他們意識到他們的發(fā)現(xiàn):“一棵不屬于古代針葉樹科的任何現(xiàn)存屬的樹，”這位美國科學(xué)家解釋說。這些樹很高，在野外可以長到130英尺高。它們有薄而易碎的樹皮，上面覆蓋著深棕色的結(jié)節(jié)，給它們一種“泡沫狀”的外觀。它們的球果長在樹枝的末端，這些樹是雌雄同體的，這意味著每棵植物都有雄性和雌性球果。

So when Australia's wildfires started burning toward Wollemi National Park in recent weeks, firefighters from the parks and wildlife service and the New South Wales Rural Fire Service put a carefully planned operation into motion.

因此，當(dāng)澳大利亞的野火最近幾周開始向沃勒米國家公園蔓延時，來自公園和野生動物管理局以及新南威爾士州農(nóng)村消防局的消防隊(duì)員啟動了一項(xiàng)精心策劃的行動。

"This is a key asset, not only for the national parks, but for our entire country," Matt Kean, New South Wales' environment minister, said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

新南威爾士州環(huán)境部長馬特·基恩在接受澳大利亞廣播公司采訪時表示:“這不僅是國家公園的關(guān)鍵資產(chǎn)，也是我們整個國家的關(guān)鍵資產(chǎn)。”

Large air tankers dropped fire retardant around the pines. Firefighters set up an irrigation system around the trees to keep them wet.

大型空中加油機(jī)在松樹周圍投放阻燃劑。消防隊(duì)員在樹木周圍建立了一個灌溉系統(tǒng)，以保持樹木濕潤。

"If the fire did go through, we wanted it to be a cool burn as opposed to a hot burn to give them the best chance of survival," Kean said.

基恩說:“如果真的發(fā)生火災(zāi)，我們希望火災(zāi)是在濕潤狀態(tài)下，而非干燥狀態(tài)下，這樣可以給他們最好的生存機(jī)會。”

The fire did sweep through the canyons, and through the groves where these trees have somehow survived for millions of years.

大火確實(shí)席卷了峽谷，也席卷了這些樹木以某種方式存活了數(shù)百萬年的小樹林。

For a few days, the smoke was so thick that it wasn't clear whether the plan had worked. "We all waited with bated breath," Kean said.

有好幾天，濃煙滾滾，不清楚這個計(jì)劃是否奏效。“我們都屏住呼吸等著，”基恩說。

At last the smoke abated.

煙終于消散了。

A few trees had been charred by the flames, and two died. But the efforts had paid off. "Finally," Kean said, "we were able to get in there and see that, thank goodness, the trees were saved."

幾棵樹被大火燒焦了，兩棵被燒死了。但這些努力得到了回報。“最后，”基恩說，“謝天謝地，我們終于達(dá)到目標(biāo)，看到樹得救了。”

He says they knew they had to do everything they could to save the Wollemi groves.

他說，他們知道他們必須盡一切努力來拯救沃勒米森林。