Dominating the tree flora of Australia, ‘Eucalyptus’ finds a special place in the country with more than 700 ‘native’ species. Being economically important in terms of its uses, the tree’s existence was seen very early by European explorers and collectors.
However, alarmingly, millions of hectares of Eucalyptus trees are decaying and dying at incredible rate across Australia.
Environmental Researchers, in a serious bid, are keenly investigating the critical reason behind this unfortunate happening.
As part of their research, they are lighting controlled fires in the decaying forests in West Australia’s south-west to determine if in the aftermath of fire, a process of tree rejuvenation is taking place. This is going by the logic that regeneration replaces trees that hit mortality.
They assume the forest management policies do not allow these trees to revitalize on its own by preventing fires blowing up the forest.
Image Credit: property
Via: abc