I'm John, that's what Daniel Kloat. The book is A Future in Flames, the story of bushfires

in Australia, but the story of bushfires everywhere, if you consider the threat to arable land,

to people, to wildlife, to ecosystems, and yet not a threat, because it, as as we've established it is part of a

continent a part of nature we come now to the question of what burns in my conversation

with you about the koala I learned that eucalyptus is a torch when it's hit by fire because of the eucalyptus oil and burns very quickly

and then blows through there's another tree that also you write about the mountain ash

and that tree the ash forests of australia both the eucalyptus and the Mount Nash regenerate very quickly

is that correct Danielle yeah so mountain ash is a eucalypt as well it's it's

actually the largest of all the eucalypts and the largest hardwood in the in the

world it's as tall if if not possibly taller in the past than the redwoods

California and the eucalypts are what we call a fire adapted group of plants so they're drought

adapted and those drought adaptations have happened to have made them resilient in that generally

in the face of fire.

So they regenerate after fire.

There's a lot of deaths, but there's also majority usually survive fires.

Mountain Ash has an interesting history because it actually does die after fire,

but it releases a huge load of seed into the forest.

And it needs a lot of sun to regenerate.

So in the aftermath of a fierce fire, a very, very fierce fire,

and Mount Nash fires are notoriously fierce.

They only happen every two or three hundred years naturally.

And the forest burn really fiercely and then the cleared areas

...