In 2019, drought choked off the Macquarie River in Australia, and fires swept through the marshes which it fed and left firefighters helpless to intervene.

Unbelievably though, just two years later and the land looks as if nothing happened. Plentiful rains mean the river is back to lazily meandering through the internationally protected Macquarie Marshes, and the reservoir behind the dam is more than 100% full.

A reminder to us all of nature's resilience, and welcome news for those in the U.S. who hear of the devastating fire seasons in Australia, the recovery of the Macquarie Marshes is important not only for the country, but to the world, as they are listed under the RAMSAR Convention for wetlands of international importance.

An aerial survey following the drought, the fires, and then the dust storms, found two black geese across the nearly 60,000 acre reserve, a mere 12% of the total acreage of the marshes, tens of thousands of which had been completely scorched.