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The problem started well before the first fire and I suggest that a whole range of people need to share a degree of responsibility for what has happened and from various backgrounds, its very easy to single out an individual with 20/20 hindsight and it doesn't change what has happened BUT modify, change, plan or improve as best can be done with lessons learnt to mitigate/deal with future scenarios.
I'm referring to this gross irresponsibility:
'Dinosaur trees': firefighters save endangered Wollemi pines from NSW bushfires | Australia news | The Guardian
Actually, the World Heritage Unit of NPWS is literally just around the corner from me, about 300m away, so I'm going to go and ask them tomorrow morning what they would think if I could tell them the location of the Wollemi Pines because of a news article.
Those Wollemis are worth a million houses.
Houses can be rebuilt.
Those trees are utterly irreplaceable.
Hi BrettQuote:
Originally Posted by FenceFurniture
Don't get too p1ssed off with The Guardian and the Wollemi Pines.
The exact area of the pines can be seen on these publicly available satellite images
https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentin...howDates=false
and
EOS landviewer: https://eos.com/landviewer/?lat=-33.827 ... .51244&z=4 set to 'Healthy Vegetation'
It provides me with images like this, red=good
<dl class="file" style="margin-right: margin-bottom: 4px; margin- font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><dt class="attach-image" style="margin: padding: 941.004px; max- 80 auto; font-weight: bold;">http://tasmania.bushwalk.com/forum/d...486152cd555109</dt><dd style="margin: padding: color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
</dd></dl>
Info pulled from a Bushwalking web site -- it's all public domain
Hi Ian
Well I think you would need a lot more knowledge to use the satellite techniques (over a simple Topo map), and nor is the clue splashed all over a newspaper.
Brett, I think you might be overestimating the average person's ability to read a topographical map.In 20 years of Army service I did not find many soldiers who were very good at that. When I got out of the Army I joined the local SES and volunteered to be the unit instructor. Like in the Army, I found that most of the "experts" could plot coordinates and calculate grid and magnetic bearings accurately. But ask them to look at the map and describe the terrain they would encounter on a walk from point A to point B and they had no clue.Quote:
Originally Posted by FenceFurniture
Maybe Doug, but the point is that to get there you would need to be an experienced bushwalker....and they do know how to read maps. Now, you might say that such a person wouldn't want to harm the trees anyway. However, they could do so unknowingly by traipsing in weed seeds on their boots, or similar.
They have gone to all this trouble to protect the area (and I mean previous efforts of secrecy) so they must be somewhat concerned about dickheads going in there. I spent 10 minutes doing a rudimentary study this morning and I think I know roughly where they are. I couldn't be bothered spending the time to nut it out - but I could with more time, and relatively easily too, if I really wanted too. I'm not sure if I have the correct map that covers it, but I do have a library of maps.
Anyone who was in the Scouts would be able to read a topo map - it's not hard at all once you have a smattering of training.
They would be pretty easy to find now. Probably the only green patch left in the Wallemi.
Thats a lot of effort to go to, trudging in, avoiding lethal bear traps, vicious dogs, electric fences, hidden park ninjas with heat tracking cameras and now (apparently) space-based Directed Energy Weapons (lasers!)
The bought ones are all clones....
Nothing hard about growing a cutting off a $30 nursery plant.
edit - I'm a keen gardener. I've made hundred of cuttings and whatnot. Some plants are more successful than others. As a pine, however, these things are like weeds. The cones are prodigious.
Here is some direct info on growing your own: Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) - Plant profile, Pictures - Nurseries Online
BrettQuote:
Originally Posted by FenceFurniture
I'm pretty certain that the location of the Wollemi Pines has been an open secret since the pines were discovered by Dave Noble back in 1994.
Those in the know are not telling and by the same token the "closed" area is not signed as being closed. Presumably this is because by not publicising the location of the area, the location can be kept sort of secret. (In one of the links I came across, there was a comment to the effect that in future the pine's location might need to be disclosed in order to keep visitors away from the area.)
I had previously thought that the Wollemi area was top secret and virtually classified. I believe it will be clearly identifiable now by the irrigation pipes in place to (wet down the surrounding vegetation).
My own experience of growing Wollemi Pines was dismal to put it mildly. They all died and then it seemed they were pulled off the market. They were nowhere near as easy to grow as was originally purported. I had not realised they were on sale again. At $89 a pop (reduced from $99) plus freight out of Brisbane, I assume, they are an expensive exercise if it all goes to "pot."
Regards
Paul
Speaking of "pot", there won't be much growing anywhere now for a while and if they do it will be fairly easy to find
Those who are growing it hydroponically in their garage will be doing alright for a while.Quote:
Originally Posted by rwbuild
Sir David Attenborough's view of the link between CC and the current fires. Interesting comment on China at the end.