Despite years of rain, Blue Mountains forests still haven’t recovered from the Black Summer megafires

Brook Mitchell/Getty For three years before the Black Summer megafires of 2019–20, cool season rainfall in southeastern Australia was only half that of normal. When fires broke out, intensely dry conditions helped them spread through areas typically resistant to burning, such as wetlands and rainforests. After the fires came three years of above-average rainfall, and scientific reports charted rapid vegetation regrowth. It’s easy to think the rains let nature repair itself. But is that the…