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Firefighters Save Australia's 'Dinosaur' Trees

Phil Mercer

   SYDNEY - An ancient and rare species of tree has been saved from
   Australia's bush fires by a specialist team of firefighters.

   Australia's Wollemi pines survived the dinosaurs, and were protected
   from huge blazes near Sydney by water-bombing aircraft and specialist
   firefighters, who were winched into a narrow gorge by helicopter.

   "It was a military-style operation," said Matt Kean, the New South
   Wales environment minister. "We had fire retardant, irrigation systems.
   We winched staff into the area to make sure that we were doing
   everything we could to protect the trees, and fortunately it paid off.

   "These trees can be found nowhere else in the world. In fact, there are
   only 200 left on the planet, so we needed to do everything we could to
   protect them and ensure they were able to survive into the future," he
   added.

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