Inspired by an off-topic discussion in this thread:
Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the 2019 Investors' Roundtable
... and the discovery that there are people out there who would like to help accelerate my project, I figured I'd make a thread for it.
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I own 8ha of land in Iceland (Hvalfjarðarsveit / Kjós, in Miðdalur, NNE of Reykjavík) which like much of Iceland was covered in birch forests when settlers first found the land, but is now highly degraded by a century of overgrazing - leading to heavy erosion. I'm working to restore it to both prevent erosion, restore habitat, and in particular bind carbon.
Apart from the iron bogs, the land is about half degraded grassland and half gravel pans ("melur"). Nutrient tests show that the land is very low in nitrogen and phosphorus, particularly the gravel pans, and also very low in organic material. Looking at tables of carbon binding ability:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...und-soils-by-biome-type-kg-m-2_tbl1_200032823
The grassland would be classed as low-grade cool grassland, while the gravel pans would be classed as arctic desert or similar. The goal is to convert them to a mix of high-grade grassland and taiga forest, sequestering around 2000 tonnes of carbon over decades - the fastest results via grassland restoration, with the greatest total via reforestation. Boggy lands, which will be forested with tamarack and other water-loving trees, will additionally continue to sequester carbon as peat even after the forests reach maturity.
The rate at which I can do this project is primarily limited by funding, so if you want to help accelerate the project, feel free to donate; I'll do all the grunt work, and send you pictures of where your money went (you can visit any time!) You can either help fund the project in general, or fund specific projects. Namely:
* Artificial fertilizers: Mainly to add phosphorus. I've used about $500 worth so far, but it could use thousands more.
* Manure spreading: Some neighbors have ample sources of manure (horse ranches) and access to manure spreader trucks (where the land is level enough for them to get to), to add nitrogen and phosphorus. A lot of their manure currently gets stockpiled into piles that leach into the water, which is obviously an undesirable situation.
* Nitrogen-fixing plants: The company Lífland sells bulk seed for red and white clover, which are native nitrogen-binding plants (also good for our native bees). Another option would be Nootka Lupine - a beautiful plant characteristic of the modern Icelandic landscape that's highly effective at soil restoration - with the downside that it's a very invasive non-native. I'd prefer clover, but am open to lupine.
* Trees: I'm focusing on conifers, and to a lesser extent plants like our native rowan, which sheep that stray onto my land (they're hard to keep out) won't eat. So far, buying in small quantities in Reykjavík, the cheapest I've been able to get are about $2 per small seedling tree (this would lead to a bill of tens of thousands of dollars to forest everything), but I can probably do significantly better buying in bulk from sources in the countryside. Note that in our climate, seedlings take many years before the amount of carbon they start sequestering becomes significant; if you wish to forest a smaller amount of area but at a faster rate, you can instead choose to have larger trees planted.
Thanks for any support you can provide! I'm also open to "special requests" - for example, if you want plants arranged to spell things out or whatnot I'll admit that I did draw a Tesla logo with fertilizer at one point... unfortunately no new aerial photographs have been taken in the past couple years for Google Maps
--------------------
To anyone who wants to donate: I initially tried setting up a GoFundMe as was suggested in the other thread... and then tried Kickstarter... and apparently neither work for people in Iceland. And since they take a chunk of the donations anyway, it's probably easier to just donate at Paypal ([email protected]). Or you could purchase seeds or seedlings directly from a supplier (Lífland, Gróðrarstöðin Mör, Gróðrarstöðin Kjarr, Garðyrkjustöðin Flóra, Garðyrkjustöðin Borg, etc) and I could pick them up. Please post if you donate and indicate if there's any particular aspect you'd like your donation put towards.
Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the 2019 Investors' Roundtable
... and the discovery that there are people out there who would like to help accelerate my project, I figured I'd make a thread for it.
----------------------
I own 8ha of land in Iceland (Hvalfjarðarsveit / Kjós, in Miðdalur, NNE of Reykjavík) which like much of Iceland was covered in birch forests when settlers first found the land, but is now highly degraded by a century of overgrazing - leading to heavy erosion. I'm working to restore it to both prevent erosion, restore habitat, and in particular bind carbon.
Apart from the iron bogs, the land is about half degraded grassland and half gravel pans ("melur"). Nutrient tests show that the land is very low in nitrogen and phosphorus, particularly the gravel pans, and also very low in organic material. Looking at tables of carbon binding ability:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...und-soils-by-biome-type-kg-m-2_tbl1_200032823
The grassland would be classed as low-grade cool grassland, while the gravel pans would be classed as arctic desert or similar. The goal is to convert them to a mix of high-grade grassland and taiga forest, sequestering around 2000 tonnes of carbon over decades - the fastest results via grassland restoration, with the greatest total via reforestation. Boggy lands, which will be forested with tamarack and other water-loving trees, will additionally continue to sequester carbon as peat even after the forests reach maturity.
The rate at which I can do this project is primarily limited by funding, so if you want to help accelerate the project, feel free to donate; I'll do all the grunt work, and send you pictures of where your money went (you can visit any time!) You can either help fund the project in general, or fund specific projects. Namely:
* Artificial fertilizers: Mainly to add phosphorus. I've used about $500 worth so far, but it could use thousands more.
* Manure spreading: Some neighbors have ample sources of manure (horse ranches) and access to manure spreader trucks (where the land is level enough for them to get to), to add nitrogen and phosphorus. A lot of their manure currently gets stockpiled into piles that leach into the water, which is obviously an undesirable situation.
* Nitrogen-fixing plants: The company Lífland sells bulk seed for red and white clover, which are native nitrogen-binding plants (also good for our native bees). Another option would be Nootka Lupine - a beautiful plant characteristic of the modern Icelandic landscape that's highly effective at soil restoration - with the downside that it's a very invasive non-native. I'd prefer clover, but am open to lupine.
* Trees: I'm focusing on conifers, and to a lesser extent plants like our native rowan, which sheep that stray onto my land (they're hard to keep out) won't eat. So far, buying in small quantities in Reykjavík, the cheapest I've been able to get are about $2 per small seedling tree (this would lead to a bill of tens of thousands of dollars to forest everything), but I can probably do significantly better buying in bulk from sources in the countryside. Note that in our climate, seedlings take many years before the amount of carbon they start sequestering becomes significant; if you wish to forest a smaller amount of area but at a faster rate, you can instead choose to have larger trees planted.
Thanks for any support you can provide! I'm also open to "special requests" - for example, if you want plants arranged to spell things out or whatnot
I'll admit that I did draw a Tesla logo with fertilizer at one point... unfortunately no new aerial photographs have been taken in the past couple years for Google Maps --------------------
To anyone who wants to donate: I initially tried setting up a GoFundMe as was suggested in the other thread... and then tried Kickstarter... and apparently neither work for people in Iceland. And since they take a chunk of the donations anyway, it's probably easier to just donate at Paypal ([email protected]). Or you could purchase seeds or seedlings directly from a supplier (Lífland, Gróðrarstöðin Mör, Gróðrarstöðin Kjarr, Garðyrkjustöðin Flóra, Garðyrkjustöðin Borg, etc) and I could pick them up. Please post if you donate and indicate if there's any particular aspect you'd like your donation put towards.
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