Land and Forest Iceland
Forestry
Table of contents
Forest restoration
Forestry projects have increasingly focused on restoring forests on poorly vegetated land to combat soil erosion, improve environmental conditions, and increase recreational opportunities.
The Hekla Forests project aims to cultivate birch forests and willow thickets in the vicinity of Hekla to reduce pumice drift after volcanic eruptions and combat soil erosion. The project is based on research by forester Úlfur Óskarsson and officially began in 2005 with the collaboration of landowners, forestry associations, and public entities.
The project covers about 90,000 hectares, or 1% of Iceland, where a large portion of the land is poorly vegetated and subject to erosion. It is carried out in three stages:
Stopping sand drift and revegetating severely damaged land.
Planting birch and willow species to form initial forests.
Natural spread of woodland over decades.
Numerous volunteers, organizations, and schools have participated in the project, which contributes to the restoration of birch forests that previously protected the area against volcanic ash.
Thorlák's Forests is a new forestry project on Hafnarsandur in Ölfus, carried out in cooperation with the municipality of Ölfus. The goal is to grow a forest to shelter the settlement in Þorlákshöfn and create valuable commercial forests on previously infertile land.
In addition, there are discussions about afforestation in Þingeyjarsýsla in areas where the Soil Conservation Service has been working on revegetation. This project supports land reclamation and forestry in the northern regions of the country.
Land Reclamation Forests are afforestation and reclamation projects carried out by forestry associations in cooperation with Land and Forest and the Ministry of Food. The project aims to reclaim barren and poorly vegetated areas with forests. To this end, about 1 million tree seedlings have been planted annually since 1990.
There are about 100 cultivation areas around the country, mostly on land owned by municipalities, the state, or forestry associations. Registered agreements are made for these areas, ensuring that they are open to the public for outdoor activities. The forestry associations are responsible for land selection, protection, planting, and forest maintenance, which has resulted in many areas now being ideal for hiking and outdoor recreation.
More information on the website of the Icelandic Forestry Association