Yoav Daniel Bar-Ness knows he is only a "mega-fire" away from losing clues to Tasmania's past.
That is why the forest ecologist is creating an archive of specimens of the state's tallest grove of flowering plants, Eucalyptus regnans.
He says the Tasmanian Herbarium collection will help future scientists to research the trees with tools that have not been invented yet.
"We know [fires are] going to come … the real scary obvious one is yet another mega-fire," Mr Bar-Ness said.
"This is a way to face the future and do something. Once it occurred to me that we could, I realised we should."
The near loss of the world's tallest known flowering plant, a Eucalyptus regnans in the far south of Tasmania named Centurion, has partly inspired the project.
In 2019, Mr Bar-Ness had planned to collect a physical specimen from Centurion to sequence the tree's genome but could not proceed because of road closures from recent bushfire damage.
The focus point of the project is Styx Valley of southern-central Tasmania, an area with a notable concentration of the tallest grove of flowering plants in the world.
Threats to Tasmania's flowering trees
Mr Bar-Ness says, for many years, Tasmania's trees have been places to explore, study biodiversity, and gather digital data, such as height measurements.
Now his attention has turned to creating an archive of physical specimens for future scientists and their research.
Although unsure of how specimens will be used, Mr Bar-Ness said the window of opportunity to collect specimens was closing.
He points to climate change, drought stress, fire, and a declining number of ancient trees as significant risks to tall trees.
"We hear all of these warning bells," Mr Bar-Ness said.
"For me, this is an opportunity to do something practical in response to that.
To the best of my knowledge, nobody else had volunteered or was equipped to do [this]."
A warning bell rang loud for the forest ecologist in 2019 when bushfires struck southern Tasmania, threatening the world's tallest known flowering plant Centurion.
"One of the things I sat with during that period was, I may have missed the chance," Mr Bar-Ness said.
"This project, in part, came from the realisation that we've missed the chance on so many of them.
"There are stories we can get from these trees if we just remember to go and do something about it before [they perish]."
Fire natural part of Eucalyptus regnans
Although the idea of losing ancient trees to fire may be confronting, Mr Bar-Ness says some eucalyptus trees welcome it for ideal conditions for regeneration.
Eucalyptus regnans harness fire to kill off competition and then dominate a landscape through rapid growth.
Fire creates favourable conditions for the growth of seeds, which are protected from the heat of the fire by a woody capsule.
Although the tree has a small amount of fire protection in the form of bark at its base, a Eucalyptus regnans is built to burn.
"It accepts it might go out in a blaze of glory," Mr Bar-Ness said.
"When these trees die from fire, they die happy because they wanted a fire."
For Mr Bar-Ness, the likelihood of fire in the tree's future provides further impetus to collect physical specimens from the ancient flowering plants now.
"We know [fires are] going to come," Mr Bar-Ness said.
"This is a way to face the future and do something. Once it occurred to me that we could, I realised we should."
Stories written in flowers and leaves
Using tree climbing gear, Mr Bar-Ness pulls a Eucalyptus regnans branch from 20 to 60 metres above to select leaf and floral samples from it.
Occasionally a windstorm or gust of wind results in a fallen branch that can be used.
Mr Bar-Ness places the specimen on a plant press and later will take it to the Tasmanian Herbarium in Hobart.
Once there, samples are transferred to archival sheets, catalogued and included in the world's most comprehensive record of Tasmanian flora.
Alongside more than 312,000 plant specimens, the tall trees add to the many stories a single leaf or flower can tell.
"Their structures are holding signs of the past," Mr Bar-Ness said.
"Even in their genetics, they tell us something about the population structures of the past"
He said in their physical forms, they held chemistry and biological clues to conditions of the past.
"We're creating the ability for future scientists to investigate these [trees] with technologies that have not been invented yet," Mr Bar-Ness said.
"How am I going to feel, how will any of us feel, if a fire comes through this season and I knew that all I had to do was put the leaf on the press and bring it in safe?"
