How we are creating a forest in this barren patch of Iceland
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- Iceland is a strange place to plant trees but for us it is one of the most logical places to try and bring back forests. In this video we tell you a bit more about the context around our projects and also some concrete details on how we are planning to plant 1 million trees here.
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Skógræktin: www.skogur.is/en
⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Intro
1:07 History
3:11 Our Project
7:51 Our planting site
🔎 ABOUT THIS PROJECT
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Iceland is known for its vast open landscapes shaped by massive volcanos and expansive glaciers. Native birchwoods, the only woodland type to form in Iceland, are also an important part of the landscape. They offer food and shelter for biodiversity, help stabilise soil, provide wind breaks, and sequester carbon. At one point, it is thought that 25-40% of Iceland was covered in birchwoods. Now, it is a mere 1.5%. This project, in partnership with the Iceland Forest Service, aims to restore birchwoods to an area about 120km east of Reykjavik where natural succession could take centuries or even millennia.
Read more here: www.mossy.earth/projects/refo...
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*PS If you were wondering why it is 1,000,001 well that extra tree is for the one I planted wrong! - Cheers, Duarte
great work guys
Great job, love the efforts. Have you all considered maybe transplant a mother tree ?! Maybe a red wood for its growth of old world species recovery. Just a thought, keep up the great work
Looking forward to seeing this grow in the future. A suggestion for the more baron areas, you mention about planting the tree next to the mossy islands as this helps anchor the routes. As these areas lack things for the tree routes to attach to and that the frost push's them out after a season. Why not create "artificial islands" by bringing some rocks & boulders, also some dead trees to help encourage moss growth and some more anchor points for the trees to bind to. This can also create areas where seeds & grasses can grow, maybe plating wild flowers in these areas as well to help build the top soil.
Is it possible to help you guys direktly. I want to travel to Iceland and plant the trees myself with you
hello! i noticed the part about disturbing the moss and id like to submit a simple idea to effectively and efficiently disturb the moss! i noticed much of the ground around there seems to be gravely! we have property with some gravel roads and as they are only around 2 decades old they are prone to yearly potholes and odd settling! our simple quick fix solution for smaller potholes was to build a metal square frame using square steel tube. weld two more vertical steel tube supports in the middle. we then welded a few horizontal steel angle (angle iron) in an upside down L formation. (flip the L on the vertical plane and then turn upside down) basically the back of the angle iron will then support what is done next. the most tedious part (in my opinion) is what comes next. you can now take old railroad spikes and weld them to the angle iron. once that is done you weld a bar and hitch in the center and hook it up to a four wheeler. the atv allows you to go places a car/truck couldn't. you can choose how deep/intensly you wish to disturb the moss by adding large boulders on top of the frame whether by laying or bungeecording them on there. fair warning, the shoddier your welding and the more pressure you place the more likely a spike or two will break off but that's ok as they can simply be welded back on again! this method used extremely cheap or free materials for our area although I don't know if there are railroads out there lol! i also apologise if my explanation was confusing it is very late and I should be in bed! i can do a simple visual if you are actually interested in the project. we have a few different versions as they get old and break down over time usually due to our shoddy welding but we have experimented with a few designs. i can talk to my father and shoot you an email better explaining/showing you the design if you are interested in it for your project. its pretty easy and simple way to level/disturb gravel like surfaces. please let me know if you are interested! i think what you are doing is extremely important work and I really enjoy your videos!keep up the good fight, I'm cheering for you from the U.S. of A!!!
As an Icelander, this is beautiful! There is an old joke in Iceland that says "If you ever get lost in an Icelandic forest, just stand up!" Interesting to think that many decades from now I might be telling my grandchildren about how the land used to be barren in the middle of an actual Icelandic forest.
I went here in march and I heard that joke! haha
I hate to burst your bubble but its more like your grandkids might be able to tell their grandkids that if we are being optomistic about aforestation rates in iceland.
@@TBIcel some trees grow up quite fast, only 10 years or so. I remember a pine being planted when I was 10, and now it is towering above my house just 10 years later
@@TBIcel Well, it depends on the soil, but as a Finn from the countryside I've planted lots of trees, and in about 10 years most of them are much taller than people. In a very nutrient poor soil they'll of course grow slower and more crooked, but generally it only takes a couple of decades to have a pretty good forest. For it to transform into a very dense sort of natural Nordic forest type with lots of mosses, weeds, ferns, mushrooms, horsetails, berries and other typical plants will take significantly longer, however.
@@wardeni4806 @Tuff It eas not about the speed trees grow, iceland already has a handful of taller forests. It was more about the size of the island vs the pop and remoteness, throw in a lot of people who like the desolate look vs sheep farmers hating fences meaning iceland wont be anything more than a barren wasteland well into the foreseable future.
The reason I chose to sponsor Mossy Earth over other organisations is because you guys start small, make mistakes and learn how to do it right before expanding. It actually gives me more faith that you’ll make a genuine difference, even if it’s on a smaller scale, rather than take on a big bombastic project that fails utterly because there was no sense of scope.
Agreed. Mossy Earth knows how to learn and they focus on what realistically be done within their capabilities and they also do transparency reports and give us the data that allows us to also see how its going without trying to complicate things like most orgs or "charities" do. Like you can actually picture how they do things and how it does improve the environment.
"We flood forest that needs flooding for better nurseries and biodiversity and to fend of invasives"
"We plant more trees to increase the leeway for nature to bounceback and thrive as it was how it should have been and can be"
very simple but straight to the point realistic
A perfect exemple is the kelp project
And they also are not involving big corporations to fund them. Once you get a corporation involved in your work, it all turns to crap
This is exactly how we are approaching this work and we really appreciate that you’ve noticed! Good projects have to be based on results and iteration. I shared this comment with the team and I am sure it will make everyone smile :) - Cheers, Duarte
At the time of discovery, Iceland was 40% forested and greatly resembled Norway. The trees were mostly cleared for farmland in the ensuing centuries, and never came back. It's so heartening to know that humans are in fact capable of enriching their environments rather than just destroying them
there should be a group devoting this much energy, passion and transparency into creatively rewilding the US. we have many groups working on ecological restoration, but mossy earth is inspiring in its dedication to documentation + the support model.
in the FDR times, there was a programme to rewild the great plains with trees to stop the dustbowl's damage to the crops, it would be interesting to see something like that again
I'm hoping that as Mossy Earth continues to grow and expand, they will eventually start a U.S. based chapter here.
you could start it..
just saying
@@martinwinther6013 right with my 30k a year salary.... i mean in a perfect world that would be great but not possible rn
@@cartermize6651 With donations?
Very impressed by the transparency of commenting on the tree planting from last year. Although it had a million views, few would remember it by now. But this type of honesty is what will make me a supporter for the long run. Love your work!
Thank you for the kind words Per! We are doing our best to get solid results but sometimes mistakes are made which we learn from and we feel this is something we should share with everyone who supports our work. We have recently partnered with Conservation Evidence to get even better at sharing all the data behind the work. More on this in a future video. - Cheers, Duarte
Really happy to hear about conservation evidence, love what they do. Fantastic that you will be contributing!
You guys are rewilding a desert faster than UK's government can make a small woods, hat's off. I can't wait to see how it turns out along with the Scotland project
Yes!
that's cause the UK gov is constantly lobbied by companies to not do it. Not only that but most of the country's rural landscape is privately owned. Here in Scotland nearly 60% of the rural area is in private hands, which the gov aren't allowed to make efforts to rewild - even if they were interested in it.
@Jake wait what? Please explain yourself, is it a forest as in made of concrete I mean there are parks that are really impressive but I wouldn't call it a forest
Really? I mean I live In England and there are quite a few of those in my area, although they are really small since they’re inside towns so I’m not sure If that counts.
@@Sarawarawara- I was being a bit hyperbolic but it stands that the UK really struggled doing rewinding work so it's usually charities such as RSPB that grow forest as natural England is always trying to stay on the side of shooting estates. And when imside town they are more like parks than actual reforestation
I have been in conservation for over 30 yrs and I think you are at the head of the curve. Most of my work is taken up with data management and modelling to aid in conservation and prevent bad human activities. This episode is a prime example of what people need to do or to encourage them to do something near them. Thanks, wish I was 30yrs younger but at least there is action where before there was just hope.
Thought the same, I'll never see this come to fruition which is a real shame. I love what these blokes are doing.
I love to think that my contribution that month went to plant that specific tree that Duarte planted on camera for 1M ppl to see
Its that extra 1 thatll make the difference
It is for the one I planted wrong! - Cheers, Duarte
It is for the one I planted wrong! - Cheers, Duarte
Haha I love this channel 😁 keep up the good work
Amazing journey, I cant wait for this island to get completely reformed
Will take a long time for us to see some meaningful change but the time for action is now :) - Cheers, Duarte
With the amount of sheep there it'll never be 'completely' reformed
@@irishfruitandberries9059 that's probably true, but an interesting note is that (at least here in Norway, people have almost stopped eating sheep, and if no one buys the meat, the farmers will have to do something else. :P
@@Glundberg84 really, why have they stopped eating sheep?
@irishfruitandberries9059 I'm not sure. It's not popular anymore, I guess.
What stood out for me in this video is the honest reflection of past mistakes with(!) video proof: how to, and how NOT to, plant trees in Icelandic soil. Indeed, that's what pilot projects are useful for, and that's why Mossy Earth is such a great organisation.
I consider my money well spent with these guys.
I'm in Svalbard at the moment and was having a conversation about the lack of trees here (understandable considering the environment), there are a couple of species that do exist here but their height is very limited. I mentioned your project in Iceland so it was a nice surprise to see this video when I got in.
I was in Longyearbyen several years ago and I think it's simply to inhospitable for forests. It's in the polar darkness for months.
@@scottslotterbeck3796Tromso has nearly 2 months of polar night every year and they have forests of trees. svalbard doesn’t seem all that different when it comes to daylight hours.
@@scottslotterbeck3796 Its amazing to think how flexible the climate is and how it changes over the millennia, once up on a time Svalbard had palm trees. But you are right until the permafrost in the ground is gone there wont be any significant vegetation permafrost is there 24/7 every day, every year no matter if the sun is up or not.
That jello ground effect is crazy, I've never seen anything like it. Will be curious to see what it's like after some trees take in the sturdy patches
I was quite interested if willows as true survivals could grow in those places even if frost lift disturbs them seriously during first years...
Ive only seen it on a "swing blanket" before (roughly translated from german), which is thick moss and other vegetation that grew over the top of a body of water in a wetlands area - if its thick enough you can even stand on it and its just as moveable as this weird jello ground. Id love to know how this jello ground works bc I know swing blankets work like a net of plants, but I cant see stones connect to a blanket like mosses and roots can
@@lagggoat7170 this happens (afaik) when the water saturation reaches a certain amount. It's basically the border between wet earth and really soil laden water.
You can see this near Lake Tahoe in the Taylor Creek wetlands area. The ground is super saturated.
@@tonisee2 Thats what I was thinking. Use willows in places like that to at least get trees there. If they can help dry it out so more trees can grow there great.
I hope they aren't monocropping with clones. I see why it's done, but it may prove disastrous.
I cant wait to see how it will turn out over the coming years!
Same here! Excited to see Iceland become more and more forested :) - Cheers, Duarte
I watched this story about using ½ million square miles in Africa to creat a solar farm to power a huge area in the NW. The rearch, done by environmentalists, blocking this project because it would cause the Amazon to eventually dry up. Goodbye earth.
Point is, earth is in a delicate balance that does not support "fixing" as much as adapting as it does.
Lupin is a miracle plant! The best thing that has happened to Iceland.
I always watch the full ads on TH-cam to help Mossy Earth how I can. They’re doing so much for the nature and it makes me so happy and inspired watching these efforts. Please never stop your work. 😊
Thank you for the support! - Cheers, Duarte
Together We Will Save The Planet👍👍👍💜💜💜
Wish i could move to Iceland and just plant trees all day lol, thad be the life
The weather can get pretty rough on those hills 😅 but I agree its amazing! - Cheers, Duarte
I won't go to Iceland bc they banned snus. But i will honour this by cleaning up and removing thrash from an animal underpass close to where i live. There is a badger living close by so i hope he will be pleased having a clean passing underneath the hoghway
Invasive doesn't necessarily mean bad. Lupin where nothing grows is better than having places where nothing grows.
Invasive literally means ecologically bad
I laughed at the comment that a million people had seen you plant in the wrong place. But I’d congratulate you on a million views showing the interest in your dreams. Keep on planting and educating us.
Love from england
Thank you Daniyal! - Cheers, Duarte
Great that you are learning from last year! I had to laugh when you showed yourself planting a tree in the 'less optimal' places 😂
Its all about learning from your mistakes and of course admitting what went wrong too. That is the whole point of sharing these projects here. - Cheers, Duarte
I love the extra "1" added to the number to account for the tree that wasn't planted correctly
We need more environmental groups like you, ones that restore landscapes. Even if it will take many years to accomplish it.
Lupin has more benefits than negatives, I love it. I hate scotch thistle and even that has a place somewhere. You are all doing work that is awesome. 😊😊😊😊😊
💜
Lupin is a declared noxious weed in rocky alpine areas in Australia as it destroys native plants. Hikers are required to report any sightings with a precise location.
@@Dave_Sissoni guess lupin is good for places that basically doesnt have native plants to kill.
I became a member only a couple of days ago, but seeing your work makes it feel 100% worth it! Keep up the great work!
We really appreciate you joining Mossy Earth! We will do our best to deliver as much rewilding impact as possible with your contribution :) - Cheers, Duarte
As an Icelander I'm super happy and proud to watch this, amazing effort! Is there a chance for the public to take part in any way other than financial backing?
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Make it flourish again, guys
It is kinda *wild* to have an anticipation of how that area will look like in next 10-20 years, but I guess it is a part of beauty of such projects.
Need more channels like this taking initiative to rebuild earth
Love these vids and love to see you revisit Iceland with a plan 👍
It is a big part of our plans for the next couple of years! More videos this Summer :) - Cheers, Duarte
This project has huge potential, cool to see you guys taking on bigger and bigger projects
I love your transparency -- even showing us the video of you learning how not to plant the trees in the frost heaves!
Your work is amazing!
Admitting mistakes is the first sign of honesty, and the ability to learn. That shows a lot more promise than some big corp projects that are more advertisement and virtue signalling than actual work.
Really excited to see how this turns out - great stuff!
Thanks! We appreciate the support :) - Cheers, Duarte
Been a member for almost a year and the transparency that y’all provide should be the benchmark for the rewilding community. Thank you for your vital work
I am so happy to see that people are trying to reforest my homeland.
Awesome work❤❤
Thank you FinJH! We are doing our best :) - Cheers, Duarte
Really looking forward to first results after the initial planting in a few years. Great project!
I wonder if planting in just the small patches that are suitable among those completely eroded patches is also going to help fix that erosion. These trees (hopefully) cast wide root networks that should also help settle that spongy ground that currently is very difficult to take to
I hope so. Over time as the trees grow it will shelter the ground from the wind, fallen leaves etc will decompose and improve the soil and an understory can develop. Animals move in, more nutrients...
Showing that you made mistakes but are correcting it is what i love about this group❤
This is one of the few channels I'd love to see daily videos from. It's always so cool to see the ways the earth can be healed.
Healed? From what?
Keep up the good work!
Thank you R W H ! - Cheers, Duarte
I love what you do, thanks
Wow. These will look amazing in the future. I am excited just by imagining how it will look
Your efforts are such a gift to all of us! I can't thank you enough for helping to restore our precious mother earth.
I cant support economically and thats annoying, but I love your work and in a future you will have my support!
Keep it up guys
Man, I feel your pain
Amazing stuff ❤
Keep the work up!
A seriously ambitious goal! I wish you the best of luck :)
Awesome work;' well done!
Another comment!
Great work! Have been in Iceland 20 y ago. Fascinating landscape. But kindof depressing without sun.
So much hope for the future!
Go to California for sun. However, you will be murdered.
I really appreciate how transparent you guys are about where the money goes
I love the work you guys do, I hope one day after high school and college I can take a road similar to yours it just makes me smile and feel so in awe with nature
Planting a lot of trees is great, what are you doing to make sure they survive? Many trees need up to 7 years of care before they can survive on their own. This has been noted in other TH-cam videos about mass tree plantings. (Some plantings without care in England have a 1% survival rate, meaning 99 of 100 trees died.)
This depends on the size of the tree no? Dormant seedlings hardly need any care, especially if the climate is moist. 99% mortality sounds like a botched planting or poor species selection to me.
We are ensuring the trees are protected from sheep by planting them in the fence and we are also making sure they are planted in the right place. Long term we will have some mortality but we can replant these lost trees with new saplings as we go along. The goal here is to create a forest and not just plant trees. We are also targeting the natural spread of these “tree islands” in the landscape to maximise the long term impact. - Cheers, Duarte
@@MossyEarth could you use branches from the non native forest on the open spongy ground? Gives some cover to the saplings, treat the ground like sand similar to how culbin and roseisle forests in Scotland were planted
Hope to see this come together!
Glad you're planting native trees. The native deciduous trees will build the soil and support Iceland's flora and fauna. Best wishes to you and your project.
Awesome work! Love from Sweden 🇸🇪
Great job
Thanks Niels! - Cheers, Duarte
love your work
Thanks Bianfa! - Cheers, Duarte
Looks great, I can't wait to see what the area looks like in 10 years.
Another fantastic stage of the project….great work Mossy Earth
I have visited Iceland a couple of times and the lack of trees is so noticeable, this is a fantastic thing you are doing and will be great for the wildlife to provide shelter.
It's beautiful, isn't it?
@@scottslotterbeck3796 certianly is! I love it
@@eilidhwatson8406 TBH, if I was able to, I'd move. Reykjavik is a wonderful town. Learning Icelandic might prove difficult, though!
Great Video! Very excited to see the results in a few years
mossy earth is a good sign of a better world ahead
I admire taking responsibility and admitting to your mistake of planting some trees not ideally! Too little people commit to their mistakes, but we all grow because of them! Thanks again for being transparent and honest! One more reason to support you! 🙂
Keep up the good work👍
Thanks ! We will do our best! - Cheers, Duarte
It's smart using plants that can spread and colonize on it's own like Lupine. Because while manual intervention is good. The best way to make a big impact if we can start something, that will spread on it's own. Giving tree's a chance to take root on their own thanks to Lupine, you get exponential growth. Suddenly the birds come in that they help spread tree's seeds.
I love how scientifically Mossy Earth approaches rewilding. You all are trying new things and making discoveries through small test. While many of the projects might be small, they help to establish new methods that might be emulated on a larger scale later.
amazing!
Thank you Jasmine! - Cheers, Duarte
Amazing project! Can't wait to follow this going forward 😊
In the Orkney Islands, just off the NE Scottish coast, the biggest issue for tree species is the wind... very few species that reach any height can cope with the almost constant blasts that come of the the North Sea. The new growth just gets burnt off and eventually the plants fail. From memory, Sycamore is the most successful species and is often used as a wind break. Also, fuscia, which despite having several species native to subtropical climates, has others that survive in the tougher conditions of the Andes.
Here in Texas, my goat herd loves to eat bluebonnets, our local Lupin relative. You can tell a goat pasture from a cattle pasture by if it has bluebonnets in spring.
I wonder if carefully managed grazing with sheep could knock back Lupin once it has done its work of colonizing, and allow native grasses to take over the improved soil?
what you guys are doing is fantastic & i hope more countries start taking notes, also congrats on owning up to the mistakes, disclosing & learning from them
and yes i want to see the planting of this batch
In my area a plant called lespedeza or bushclover is used on roadsides for soil restoration. Its non native but it works.
Mossy Earth and Ocean Conservation Namibia are some of the best conservation channels on youtube.
I would love to see Mossy Earth working with Ocean Conservation Namibia sometime in the future
The phrase "a magical dance" is a great motto for what many are trying to do
I'm so excited to see this! This channel is so great for showing me how there are some places I consider 'natural landscape' that are actually heavily degraded. Keep up the amazing work :D
Love what you guys are doing, crazy to see how many new projects you’re taking on and the progress you’re making, keep it up!
Inspiring work. Gonna try work like this in my high desert city!
The production and transparency here is what we need more of. 😮
Wonderful explanation of the history of forests and of deforestation in Iceland, and of your project. My grandparents on one side were Icelandic, so it has a special place in my heart. Glad that you will be helping forests return to this landscape.
Can you do rewilding Ireland?
We’ve had some projects in Ireland in the past. Currently we do not have anything upcoming but would love to work there if the opportunity is good. - Cheers, Duarte
You guys rock!
Thank you for all that you do to leave this planet better than you found it... 🌳🌲🌱
What type of birch species are you planting? How long will they take to mature in the depleted soils?
Betula pubescens is the birch species. I think we can expect them to take at least 50 years to mature. - Cheers, Duarte
@@MossyEarth Thanks for the response! Keep up the good work! I look forward to enjoying these forests with my future family!
Almost certainly more effective use of money than team trees I'm pretty sure they were just planting a monoculture
You guys are legends! ❤️
Cheers from the Danube River
Iceland covered in redwoods, magnolias, yellow aspen and white birch would be amazing. Would be similar to western Canada or even give Middle-Earth vibes
I wonder how many young Icelanders are a part of reforestation projects like this. As a scout when I was a kid, this is before the modern wave of climate concern, forestation efforts were very much an "old man's club" and the fellers showing you around in this video made me think back to some of the old fellers I knew back then. If there was one thing that excited them more than nature itself, it was to welcome young people that showed renewed interest in what they had dedicated their lives to. I wonder if you guys at Mossy Earth don't inspire these old fellers, that there are lots of people from all over the world who actually care about the reforestation in their country.
I think people in Iceland care about this. The thing is there are so few people here that even if all of them planted trees all the time it would still not be huge amount for the size of the country. - Cheers, Duarte
So in the new area will other native species than Downy Birch be planted as well? Such as the Rowan, Tea-leaf Willow, and Aspen mentioned earlier in the video. I love yall's work and it's amazing that someone is actually working to help restore out planet and ecosystems :)
As ICE melt Iceland And Greenland are great places to plant Trees.
Well done! Exciting work, in a slow motion, tree timescale way 😂 Keep it going ❤
Great ❤
Thanks! - Cheers, Duarte
Awesome video, guys. I enjoyed every minute of it. Now the question is, what will come first, one million subscribers or one million trees planted? :D
Awesome Work!
We were stationed in Iceland back in the early 80's. Those who had young children had to teach them what trees were when we got back to the States. It was truly an experience living there, and my son was born there. I hope the tree planting goes well!
Thank you for the update and all the hard work 🫡
Thank you Felix! We appreciate the support as usual :) - Cheers, Duarte
Since redwoods once lived there, would it break the rules to reintroduce them?
I'm thinking that the climate conditions there probably wasn't the same as the ones today, when redwood grew there. So they might not thrive or even survive there.
Climate conditions have changed and they are no longer suitable for redwoods I’m afraid :( - Cheers, Duarte
The way you just manage to make such contribution with less money compared to other organisations. Your efficiency is stunning
Great Content, i love iceland and i have been there several times, yet i always missed forest in these harsh landscapes. Keep up the good work !
firsttt
You won this time Rob!