The Winds of Change: Seeing the Forest and the Trees

“It is 90 seconds to midnight.”

In early 2023 the hands on the Doomsday Clock moved even closer to midnight, now standing the closest to a global catastrophe it’s ever been. This newest update comes amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine and shows how the actions of a few men can have drastic consequences to the world around them. But it’s not just the war that got us here.

The impact that humanity has on the environment is not only undeniable, but often easily observable and one needs not to imagine the future to see mankind’s actions unravel. If we go back just over 1000 years in time to the actions of one Ingólfur Arnarson, whose search for a better life (in)directly caused degradation of a fragile environment of an island located at the cold tips of the Atlantic Ocean.

The island called The Land of Fire and Ice.

The Treeless Land.

One small step for man…

Ingólfur Arnarson is more than a statue that decorates a grassy hill in the center of Reyjavík. Often recognized as the first (Nordic) permanent settler of Iceland, he made his

way over at the end of the 9th century and founded the now-capital of Reykjavík. What followed were centuries of viking colonization that left the local environment in a state of disarray, through no direct blame of their own. The people needed refuge and food and the best way to get both was to cut down the trees; on one hand the wood could then be used as firewood and to make tools and on the other hand the area could be turned into grasslands for sheep to graze on. It didn’t help that sheep fed on the seedlings, making it quite impossible for new trees to sprout. Over time, this led to a sharp decrease of the forest-covered area - from 25-40% down to a mere (below) 1% in the past century. Things were so dire that in the beginning of the 20th century there were people in Iceland who had never seen a tree, and others who believed forests simply couldn’t be cultivated. At that point in time, however, there was a turning point and, as fate would have it, it was because of the actions of one man - Hákon Bjarnason.

Hákon played a pivotal role in the early days of the Icelandic Forestry Association (Skógræktarfélag Íslands), having been present upon its founding and going as far as donating his own land to further fund the work of the association.

His work was built on top of that of other pioneers who came before him, but his approach to the conservation of Icelandic nature was practical, academic and entrepreneurial and his actions - revolutionary.

“It has been our biggest challenge to bring back the forest cover; there is no other country in Europe that has a smaller forest coverage, except the Vatican,” says Einar Örn Jónsson, a journalist-turned-forester. Having been involved with IFA for a number of years, Einar is quite familiar with Hákon, to whom he attributes much of the IFA’s current prominence seen in great part in the purple haze that engulfs the island every spring. “He was one of the pioneers in Icelandic forestry who brought lupine [to Iceland], back in 1945. He planted it in eroded areas to improve the soil so the trees could then be planted.”

The lupine is often referred to as a pioneer plant because of its ability to thrive in harsh growing conditions and supply the soil with nutrients over time. Lupine has been sowed in various places in Iceland with the intent of improving growing conditions for other plants - however, this has been fiercely criticised by some because of its rapid growth and the question of whether it gives way to other plants.

DID YOU KNOW...

— The tree of the year 2022 is also the tallest tree in Iceland - a 30m high Sitka spruce

— The biggest forest in Iceland is Hallormsstaðaskógur, on the east side of the island. It’s also a man-made forest with a lake rumoured to be the home of the “Icelandic Nessie” - the Lagarfljót wyrm

— The Green Scarf is a collective term for forest and outdoor recreational areas on the outskirts of seven municipalities in the capital area

— The oldest living being in Iceland is a Swedish whitebeam, planted in 1884 and located in downtown Reykjavík

— Horseshoe-shaped Ásbyrgi canyon is a home to a beautiful forest that sprouted, according to Icelandic folklore, after Sleipnir (Óðinn’s horse) had stepped on Earth and left his mark. Some believe this is also the capital of the Huldufólk, or “hidden people”