One bit of difference between forests in the UK and those in the western US and parts of Australia is that the forests in the second group included fires as part of the lifecycle of the forest. The release of seeds occurs after a fire and some trees are able to resist fires of a certain temperature.
The problem is that white settlers saw the fires as bad, doing a really good job at preventing forest fires. The problem with doing that is that the forests now have a far higher energy density than they were evolved for, so modern fires are a lot worse.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 3 weeks ago
One bit of difference between forests in the UK and those in the western US and parts of Australia is that the forests in the second group included fires as part of the lifecycle of the forest. The release of seeds occurs after a fire and some trees are able to resist fires of a certain temperature.
The problem is that white settlers saw the fires as bad, doing a really good job at preventing forest fires. The problem with doing that is that the forests now have a far higher energy density than they were evolved for, so modern fires are a lot worse.