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Life Is Slowly Returning To Scorched Australian Lands And Here Are 30 Hopeful Photos
For the last few months, Australia has been tormented by natural disasters caused by extreme weather, from destructive fires worsened by drought, to flash flooding that occurred when that drought suddenly ended. You can see photos of the damage that the bushfires have already done to wildlife and communities here and here. While the southern states of Victoria and New South Wales aren’t out of the woods yet and many fires are still raging, photos show that life goes on in the areas that the fire already passed through.
Plants that have evolved to shield their buds from fire so they can quickly resprout after being burnt at the surface, or even take advantage of the nutrients in ash, are called pyrophytic plants. It’s not uncommon to see them blooming en masse after a devastating fire, and the brilliant greens and reds against the blackened landscape have a stunning visual effect. But even though the cycle of being burnt and growing back again is normal for Australia’s vegetation, the plant and animal survivors still face challenges.
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In 2011, following a 2009 fire that was the most deadly to humans in Australia’s history, it was observed that previously unknown and rare plants had emerged in Victoria’s Kinglake National Park. When fire clears out the vegetation cover preventing light from reaching the forest floor, dormant seeds lying in wait in the soil have a chance to flourish, allowing the ecosystem to start off on a new foot.
The current disaster completely eclipses that fire or any yearly fire season since then in terms of the amount of land consumed, though, and just because Australia’s ecosystem has the ability to bounce back from fires, that doesn’t soften the blow of the human and animal suffering that have taken place as immediate consequences. Worse yet, scientists say that more intense summer temperatures and droughts in recent years are making large-scale fires more likely as well as increasing the duration of the fire season.
In addition to all the animals killed in the blaze, many more that live in the forest understory or have specific diets have had their habitat destroyed, so casualties may continue even among the survivors after the fire has cleared out of an area. This aspect of the ecosystem won’t rebuild as easily and some of the affected animals are already endangered or close to extinction. Scientists have estimated that 30% of the koala population may have already died.
They are Banksia seed pods, they need fire to open. https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/heat-triggered-release-opening-banksia-seed-pod/
Load More Replies...So there are plants which have a "fire-safe" full of backups of itself...wow.
Fire is so common in Australia that most of the plants have evolved to regenerate after fire.
Load More Replies...The pods in this pic, are banksia seed pods. :) Eucalyptus seed pods a waaaaaay smaller than this. Most commonly, they're about the size of the tip of someone's pinky finger.
Load More Replies...This photo is for sale if you wish to buy. Please contact Jenny Beck Images on Facebook
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia About half of Banksia species are killed by bushfire, but these regenerate quickly from seed, as fire also stimulates the opening of seed-bearing follicles and the germination of seed in the ground. The remaining species usually survive bushfire, either by resprouting from a woody base known as a lignotuber or, more rarely, epicormic buds protected by thick bark.
Those are seed pods. Many species need a fire before they will sow their seeds.
Feed me, Seymour! So happy to see life returning. I'm worried about the smaller critters, though. Reptiles, amphibians, and bugs that had no chance of running from the fires. Bats and birds, also. I hope to visit Australia someday and see the fantastic wildlife thriving.
Organizations working to rebuild communities have had to send a word of caution to people abroad who want to help, though. Some organizations have received so many boxes of blankets and mittens for recuperating animals that they no longer have a place to store them and also aren’t too pleased with the environmental impact of international shipping.
People like to donate material goods because they feel like they know exactly what they’re being used for, but Juanita Rilling of the US Center for International Disaster Information urges people to realize that it is tremendously more practical to identify and send financial donations to organizations providing assistance to the animals and people that have lost their homes.
Note: this post originally had 49 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Actually..I'm not too surprised by this. Many plants take advantage of the carbon and nitrogen that gets left behind by fires. It's also the reason that places like Hawaii have such lush greenery..the volcanic soil. Wonderful to see that Australia's experiencing recovery already.
Some plants like the Banksia even need fires to open their seed pods. Its a natural cycle. https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/heat-triggered-release-opening-banksia-seed-pod/
Load More Replies...Yes there is hope. But many fires are still burning. And volunteers are putting out food, on Kangaroo Island , desperately trying to prevent the second wave of deaths. As animals starve to death. We don't know how many species have become extinct. We might never know. Many animals are still in recovery from terrible injuries in emergency shelters. https://www.rspca.org.au/
The worst thing is knowing that the peak of fire season is not yet past. Fearing February. Feeling helpless.
Load More Replies...While it’s good that some plant life is returning, the fires are far from over. It’s not even peak of fire season yet.
Even through the ugliest things that happen to our planet, the nature knows how to heal itself.
Why is fire ugly? It's a necessary thing. Every single environment on earth that has burnable things sometimes burn.
Load More Replies...The leaves appearing on trees are epicormic growth from a cell layer under the surface. This growth relies on the fires not being too hot - if the fire is hot enough to cook the cell layer deeper down, the entire tree dies. It's worth noting that the ability to regenerate from epicormic or seed dispersal after fire is absolutely related to how catastrophic the fire is.
This isn't "hopeful", this is "nature". This is how nature works. People act like once something happens to an area that it's dead forever. The extreme environmental crowd is like that. As shown in some of these photos, there are seed pods that not only expect fire, but it's an absolute requirement before they can open. Calm down, people. It's going to be alright.
We really should try to find a good solution in transforming salt water into drinkable water and bring this water into nature. Avoiding yearly fires by watering projects, growing forests and taking profit also on that. Growing plants for food but also bringing back nature.
Do not avoid all fires. They are an essential part of the ecosystem and it's like pinching a hose. Some areas in Canada used to be bad for putting out all fires, no matter the cause. This causes too much undergrowth and the fires eventually get worse and worse until you have massive, infrequent, deadly ones instead of little, frequent, healthy ones.
Load More Replies...Don't mess with Mother Nature, she will always come back stronger and more beautiful than ever!
As awful as the fires were for the animals and even people the rest of nature needs the occasional wildfire to clean and renew itself. I admit the fires were worse than they should have been but it is unsurprising that we are seeing regrowth already.
How about growing up and remembering the history of the continent before the establishment of the prison colony? Endemic species are adapted to such fires, but not to the immigrant and his favorites!
Mother Nature is awesome, she will do everything she can to give life a second chance.
I am feeling somewhat happy, to see the new growth, the promise of better days ahead, however, I do realize the likely of more fires, so sad with many animals lost, we must pray for tremendous rain to help, for today and the future, thanks for this post !!!
So sad the animals can't recover as quickly. Thinking about you all. 🙏🙏💖💖
Actually..I'm not too surprised by this. Many plants take advantage of the carbon and nitrogen that gets left behind by fires. It's also the reason that places like Hawaii have such lush greenery..the volcanic soil. Wonderful to see that Australia's experiencing recovery already.
Some plants like the Banksia even need fires to open their seed pods. Its a natural cycle. https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/heat-triggered-release-opening-banksia-seed-pod/
Load More Replies...Yes there is hope. But many fires are still burning. And volunteers are putting out food, on Kangaroo Island , desperately trying to prevent the second wave of deaths. As animals starve to death. We don't know how many species have become extinct. We might never know. Many animals are still in recovery from terrible injuries in emergency shelters. https://www.rspca.org.au/
The worst thing is knowing that the peak of fire season is not yet past. Fearing February. Feeling helpless.
Load More Replies...While it’s good that some plant life is returning, the fires are far from over. It’s not even peak of fire season yet.
Even through the ugliest things that happen to our planet, the nature knows how to heal itself.
Why is fire ugly? It's a necessary thing. Every single environment on earth that has burnable things sometimes burn.
Load More Replies...The leaves appearing on trees are epicormic growth from a cell layer under the surface. This growth relies on the fires not being too hot - if the fire is hot enough to cook the cell layer deeper down, the entire tree dies. It's worth noting that the ability to regenerate from epicormic or seed dispersal after fire is absolutely related to how catastrophic the fire is.
This isn't "hopeful", this is "nature". This is how nature works. People act like once something happens to an area that it's dead forever. The extreme environmental crowd is like that. As shown in some of these photos, there are seed pods that not only expect fire, but it's an absolute requirement before they can open. Calm down, people. It's going to be alright.
We really should try to find a good solution in transforming salt water into drinkable water and bring this water into nature. Avoiding yearly fires by watering projects, growing forests and taking profit also on that. Growing plants for food but also bringing back nature.
Do not avoid all fires. They are an essential part of the ecosystem and it's like pinching a hose. Some areas in Canada used to be bad for putting out all fires, no matter the cause. This causes too much undergrowth and the fires eventually get worse and worse until you have massive, infrequent, deadly ones instead of little, frequent, healthy ones.
Load More Replies...Don't mess with Mother Nature, she will always come back stronger and more beautiful than ever!
As awful as the fires were for the animals and even people the rest of nature needs the occasional wildfire to clean and renew itself. I admit the fires were worse than they should have been but it is unsurprising that we are seeing regrowth already.
How about growing up and remembering the history of the continent before the establishment of the prison colony? Endemic species are adapted to such fires, but not to the immigrant and his favorites!
Mother Nature is awesome, she will do everything she can to give life a second chance.
I am feeling somewhat happy, to see the new growth, the promise of better days ahead, however, I do realize the likely of more fires, so sad with many animals lost, we must pray for tremendous rain to help, for today and the future, thanks for this post !!!
So sad the animals can't recover as quickly. Thinking about you all. 🙏🙏💖💖