![](https://i1.wp.com/newsviews.online/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/wp-42_wide-90bc9f2d0e341f8b4e437fe7e966fe509577480d-s1300-c85-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1)
It was a lifesaving mission as dramatic as any in the months-long battle against the wildfires that have torn through the Australian bush.
But instead of a race to save humans or animals, a specialized team of Australian firefighters was bent on saving invaluable plant life: hidden groves of the Wollemi pine, a prehistoric tree species that has outlived the dinosaurs.
![](https://i2.wp.com/newsviews.online/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/wp-27_edit_wide-210c4402c21931d5a02d21943b48397420db013c-s1300-c85.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1)
Wollemia nobilis peaked in abundance 34 million to 65 million years ago, before a steady decline. Today, only 200 of the trees exist in their natural environment — all within the canyons of Wollemi National Park, just 100 miles west of Sydney.
![](https://i1.wp.com/newsviews.online/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/wp-13_wide-235fb797a0ceff47d4f6b29f434319b898abd2e4-s1300-c85.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1)
The trees are so rare that they were thought to be extinct until 1994. The story continues here at NPR: