澳大利亞消防員拯救了世界上唯一稀有的恐龍樹

澳大利亞消防員拯救了世界上唯一稀有的恐龍樹

Specialist firefighters have saved the world’s last remaining wild stand of a prehistoric tree from wildfires that razed forests west of Sydney, officials said Thursday.

澳大利亞官員于本周四稱，消防專家們從一場森林大火中拯救了世界上僅存的一棵史前原始森林。這場森林大火燒毀了悉尼以西的多處森林。

Firefighters winched from helicopters to reach the cluster of fewer than 200 Wollemi Pines in a remote gorge in the Blue Mountains a week before a massive wildlife bore down, National Parks and Wildlife Service Director David Crust said.

國家公園和野生動物服務中心主任David Crust說，在大規(guī)模的野生動物開鑿之前一周，消防隊員從直升機上到達了藍山一個偏遠峽谷中不到200棵沃勒米松樹的生長區(qū)域。

The firefighters set up an irrigation system to keep the so-called dinosaur trees moist and pumped water daily from the gorge as the blaze that had burned out of control for more than two month edged closer.

消防隊員建立了一個灌溉系統(tǒng)，每天從峽谷抽水，以保持所謂的恐龍樹的濕潤，此時大火已經(jīng)失去控制燃燒了兩個多月，慢慢逼近。

Firefighting planes strategically bombed the fire front with fire retardant to slow its progress.

消防飛機用阻燃劑對火場進行了戰(zhàn)略性轟炸，以延緩火勢蔓延。

“That helped just to slow the intensity of the fire as it approached the site,” Crust told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Crust告訴澳大利亞廣播公司說:“當火勢接近現(xiàn)場時，這能幫助減緩火勢的強度。”

“The Wollemi Pine is a particularly important species and the fact that this is the only place in the world where they exist and they exist in such small numbers is really significant,” he added.

“沃勒米松是一個特別重要的物種，這里是它們在世界上唯一的生存之地，它們的數(shù)量極少，這一事實真的很重要。”他補充說。

New South Wales state Environment Minister Matt Kean said the operation had saved the stand, although some plants had been singed.

新南威爾士州環(huán)境部長基恩(Matt Kean)說，盡管一些工廠被燒焦了，但這次行動挽救了這棵樹。

“These pines outlived the dinosaurs, so when we saw the fire approaching we realized we had to do everything we could to save them,” Kean said.

基恩說:“這些松樹比恐龍活得更久，所以當我們看到大火逼近時，我們意識到必須盡一切努力來拯救它們。”

The Wollemi Pine had only been seen in its fossilized form and was thought long extinct before the stand was found in 1994.

在1994年發(fā)現(xiàn)它之前，沃勒米松只以化石的形式出現(xiàn)過，人們以為它早已滅絕。