Sequestering carbon by land restoration and reforestation in Iceland

[Don TLR]

Love all the updates, did you see the picture of a Model 3 towing a sailboat.
Its odd you say drought when talking about Iceland, everything looks so lush and wet with water flowing everywhere in the pictures I see.

 

[KarenRei]

Love all the updates, did you see the picture of a Model 3 towing a sailboat.
Its odd you say drought when talking about Iceland, everything looks so lush and wet with water flowing everywhere in the pictures I see.

No, haven't seen that yet. Sounds like they were exceeding the tow limit. I would NEVER do such a thing, no sirree.... *whistles innocently*

Drought is of course comparative wherever you are. There's tons of water in the ground, virtually everywhere, and big rivers all over the country (we have the highest freshwater per capita among countries) - and regardless of the weather, that doesn't change. Also, in the winter and late fall / early spring, there's virtually never dry periods. Summer weather however tends to oscillate between periods of wet, where it rains almost every day, and periods of dry, where it rarely rains. This doesn't of course hurt trees whose roots are down to the water table (which is always present), but if there's no rain, then soil near the surface can dry out - particularly gravelly places with little organic matter. So for newly planted trees, without an established root system, this can be a problem. After a year or so, though, it's a total non-issue.

BTW, just heard back from the neighbors - they think they'll be able to do the manure spreading (they have a manure spreader truck and raise horses). I'll need to make a hole in my fence for them to access part of the property, however, since the truck is quite limited on what sort of grades it can tolerate. :Þ Now that there's actually some grass growing on the gravel pans, I shouldn't need to worry as much about runoff - I'm sure they'll suck up every bit of nutrients they can get. Still, I'm going to keep the "slow and steady" approach in mind.

 

[KarenRei]

Raining right now, as it has been for the past hour. Even if it does suddenly stop, which it's not forecast to, everything's going to be soaked for the rest of the evening. So not a planting evening.

Weather forecast looks somewhat better tomorrow, and even better the two days after. So I've got my fingers crossed. This evening I'll finish up my planting plan (e.g. what species are best suited for what locations... but always with some exceptions, in order to allow for diversity and unexpected adaptability)

 

[Duffer]

Raining right now, as it has been for the past hour. Even if it does suddenly stop, which it's not forecast to, everything's going to be soaked for the rest of the evening. So not a planting evening.

Weather forecast looks somewhat better tomorrow, and even better the two days after. So I've got my fingers crossed. This evening I'll finish up my planting plan (e.g. what species are best suited for what locations... but always with some exceptions, in order to allow for diversity and unexpected adaptability)

Possible to see a sneak peak of your planting plan?

 

[KarenRei]

Not sure how useful it'll be, given that it's in Icelandic

 

[KarenRei]

Okay, I'll take the time to translate the most important parts Here's the primary (but not exclusive) planting zones for each:

Subalpine Fir: By the river, in the ravine
Sitka Alder: Gravel pan, even rocks
Downy Birch: Sun, fertile
Tamarack: Marsh, sunny landslides
Blue Spruce: Upper slopes / gravel pan
Sitka Spruce: Marsh, sunny landslides
Lodgepole Pine: Sunny, particularly bad areas, even rocks. Several (but not many) in marshland.
Mountain/Mugo Pine: Sunny, disturbed areas
Black cottonwood: Wet sunny land, but not inside marshland.
Willow “Fjölbraut”: Grassland, perhaps marsh
Dune Willow “Billow”: Grassland, perhaps marsh
Tea-Leaved Willow “Coasts”: Grassland, perhaps marsh
Rowan: Fertile grassland

Note that these don't necessarily denote the best areas for each species. For example, both sitka spruce and tamarack grow better outside of marshes than in them. But they actually tolerate them (particularly tamarack, which will get the wettest spots), so it's their job to take those worse locations. Thankfully I have a lot of sitka spruce so that they can go elsewhere as well (anywhere there's full sun).

I noticed when making up the list of current (and recently planted) plants that very few had any real shade tolerance. Obviously, the deeper you get into the canyon and the ravine, the more limited the angles that the sun can reach a plant from, so the more time they'll spend in shade. Nowhere is like a slot canyon or anything, but still, it's a factor. Only subalpine fir has very good shade resistance, and of the others, only blue spruce is moderate. I have none of either ready to plant. Subalpine fir additionally have the weakness that they don't take wind well - they need some shelter. There's some naturally sheltered shade areas, but not most of the shady area. The next batch of trees may need to focus more on shade.

At least foresting the land uphill from the canyon will help block katabatic winds coming off of Eyrarfjall. But the winds coming down the valley, e.g. through the canyon, wouldn't be blocked by them. Not sure which wind source is more important... I should look at the patterns in the grass to see from where the predominant winds come.

 

[SageBrush]

Karen, your are an education.
Thanks, and keep it coming !

 

[KJD]

Great project Karen. Thanks for sharing. My wife and I were in Iceland for 10 days last year and I must say it is a beautiful country with some wonderful people and great food and drink.

 

[Brando]

I never saw any trees (that I remember) in 1973. I think there was a national reforestation project along the south coast? But as a hitchhiker, I never made that part of Iceland.
Worked fish factory near Keflavik, hitch from Reykjavik to Isafjordur and helped remove ash from Vestmannaeyjar.

Can't find the original "Althingi lake area" what a magical place. So quiet you could hear the Raven's claws click on the rocks. Took me a while to realize what this clicking sound was and then I saw the raven landing on the rocks. click, click

So few bugs. Fish would dry-out before it spoiled - natural freeze dried. Hardfisker? something like that. And salted Cod for EU or did it go to Africa?? Anyway, great time. Cod War and all.

Hope sheep wool doing well. Natural colors so wonderful.

 

[Bet TSLA]

But most people are not in that position and we shouldn't be helping the fools fuel interests by adding distractions.....

Great. So go find some of those people and harass them. You won't find any here. Here, you are just being tedious.

 

[nwdiver]

Great. So go find some of those people and harass them. You won't find any here. Here, you are just being tedious.

Following the facts is tedious... but it's the best way to achieve the best results. SCIENCE!

 

[nwdiver]

Why can't we just pitch reforestation for the sake of reforestation? Why do we have to lump carbon sequestration into it?

 

[guidooo]

Because it does sequester beautifully, that's enough reason for me.

Whether you see carbon sequestration as secondary benefit or primary goal is up to you. As a side note, fossil fuels wouldn't exist without photosynthesis done long time ago.

 

[mblakele]

Why can't we just pitch reforestation for the sake of reforestation? Why do we have to lump carbon sequestration into it?

You may be right, and I appreciate that you mean well. But wouldn't it be more considerate of Karen to let this thread go on with its intended purpose, and start a fresh thread to discuss the pros and cons of reforestation vs carbon sequestration?

@guidooo also.

 

[Brando]

Why can't we just pitch reforestation for the sake of reforestation? Why do we have to lump carbon sequestration into it?

cause it is science?

 

[KarenRei]

I never saw any trees (that I remember) in 1973. I think there was a national reforestation project along the south coast? But as a hitchhiker, I never made that part of Iceland.
Worked fish factory near Keflavik, hitch from Reykjavik to Isafjordur and helped remove ash from Vestmannaeyjar.

Can't find the original "Althingi lake area" what a magical place. So quiet you could hear the Raven's claws click on the rocks. Took me a while to realize what this clicking sound was and then I saw the raven landing on the rocks. click, click

So few bugs. Fish would dry-out before it spoiled - natural freeze dried. Hardfisker? something like that. And salted Cod for EU or did it go to Africa?? Anyway, great time. Cod War and all.

Hope sheep wool doing well. Natural colors so wonderful.

Forest area bottomed out in the 1950s, if I remember right - that's about the time at which the rate of reforestation started matching the rate of loss. 1970s was still pretty close to the bottom, as reforestation has been accelerating. We're now up to around 2% forest cover (for a generous definition of "forest cover" ), which is still less than a tenth of how it was when the vikings got here, but nonetheless a big improvement. Yeah, the south coast has a number of patches with good forests - for example, Iceland's tallest sitka spruce trees (closing in on 30m) are near Kirkjubæjarklaustur, which is between Vík (the coastal town southeast of Eyjafjallajökull and Katla, near the Reynisdrangar sea stacks and the columnar basalt beach Reynisfjara) and Skaftafell (some gorgeous hiking by the outflow glaciers of Vatnajökull, not far west of Jökulsárlon, the famous glacial iceberg lagoon).

You took part in helping remove ash from Vestmannaeyjar? I should be thanking you! Well done! The Eldfell eruption was a national tragedy. You'd love seeing Vestmannaeyjar today, it's so beautiful and peaceful.

"Althingi lake area" would be Þingvellir (rift) and Þingvallavatn (lake) Unfortunately, Þingvellir is not so peaceful anymore, as it's part of the "Golden Circle" tourist route, and a large portion of our tourists visit it. I mean, they're not like Disneyland, but they're not empty and eerily silent. That said, it's one of the few places outside of populated areas and Ring Road that aren't empty and eerily silent

Yep, no mosquitoes. That said, there are some places where insects form massive clouds at certain times a year - most famously, Mývatn (Midge Lake). For people who didn't know any better, it'd be terrifying, because it looks like you're surrounded by an unthinkably endless swarm of gigantic mosquitoes! But they're just harmless filter feeders, and they only land on you because you look like a convenient place to land

Good memory about the fish jerky - "harðfiskur". Very popular here, you can get it in every grocery store and gas station And yeah, while the EU is our biggest fish market, Africa does buy a surprising amount.

That's right, you would have been here for the second and perhaps even third Cod War! What a period to be in Iceland. They're now a classic example in geopolitics studies of how in the modern environment, a small country with high resolve on a particular issue can defeat a vastly larger, vastly more powerful country. In an environment like the UN, for example, there's an inherent instinct to weigh each side of a dispute the same, regardless of the population and GDP of each side. And Iceland was able to adeptly play the politics of the Cold War against the UK, threatening to give the NATO base at Keflavík over to the Soviets, causing the US to apply pressure against the UK.

The funny thing about the sheep wool is that while people use natural colours, at least today, it's generally made by mixing the wool from the different colour sheep together, bleaching it, then re-dying it to specific colours; it's apparently cheaper and easier that way. But there's lots of lobbying from knitters to stop that practice and sort the raw wool by colour instead. Maybe they've already started doing that? I don't follow "knitting news" very well

Great to hear from someone who spent some time here back in the day! If you ever make it back, I'd be glad to meet up with you for a chat

 

[KarenRei]

(Status update: It was bright and sunny this morning, although it's been getting increasingly cloudy as the day's gone on, and there's a chance of rain this evening. Still hopeful to be able to get out and plant after work this evening! The forecasts for tomorrow and Friday are excellent, but then it steadily worsens throughout the weekend)

 

[LN1_Casey]

I just sent a little your way. Should get a couple trees, or some fertilizer or something.

 

[KarenRei]

Clover buy still planned for Friday, I'm still waiting to hear back from the neighbor about how much the manure spreading will cost, and I haven't checked yet into how much it'll cost to help install some better anchors for fencing on the eastern canyon slopes to help keep the sheep out from that angle (all of my past attempts on my own have ended with the eroding slopes taking the fence down with them into the canyon :Þ) But given how much people have donating, it's looking like there will probably be enough for a whole new pack-the-car-to-the-brim tree buying round after all of these are in the ground! If so, it should be over a thousand trees going into the ground this year because of you guys

Weather looks to be holding up. If it's still looking good ~40 minutes from now, I'll be headed to start planting sitka spruce!

 

[SageBrush]

We just bought 16 trees. They will come home tonight.
Since our trees are starting out taller than Karen's we probably are contenders in the trans atlantic TMC reforestation derby .... for a week or two, anyway.