Endangered oak’s secret home beneath a NSW volcano its only hope of survival

By Laura Chung
Sydney Morning Herald
May 7, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Hidden away on the southern side of an ancient volcano in northern NSW is a unique rainforest that will house 20 rare seedlings of a tree, but whether they will survive as climate change takes hold is in the hands of scientists.  The endangered Nightcap Oak tree is part of the unique rainforest ecosystem north-east of Lismore, which also houses a range of other species that migrated when Australia was still connected to Asia, Antarctica and South America via land bridges about 40 million years ago.  Back then, rainforests were much more common across Australia and Nightcap Oak trees were found in many of them. As Australia moved north over millennia and the climate warmed, the Nightcap Oak can now only survive in a tiny pocket of the state’s north.  

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