Iceland's attempts to replant its forests • Hacker News Board

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#241

Post by KGIII » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 5:51 AM UTC

njarboe wrote: post #239

KGIII wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly true. In my area, once you get passed a point south of me, those walls are fewer and fewer. There are areas where it was never farmed and old growth trees still exist. What is great is you can walk out to places and stand there and be reasonably certain that you're the first human to have ever stood in that spot.

Possibly, but there has been a lot of humans walking around North America the last 12,000 years or so.

I'm way up outside Rangeley, Maine. I even have true old growth and there weren't many natives in the area. So, there are some places where it's a good guess. They aren't easy to get to, of course.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#242

Post by Myrmornis » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 7:03 AM UTC

It's strange to me that tourists and the film industry find the landscape beautiful because of its lack of trees.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#243

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 8:20 AM UTC

avar wrote: post #6

For reasons I won't go into the farming lobby is really strong in Iceland. Sheep run free-range around the entire island, if you'd like to grow something that sheep like to eat you need to fence it in. It's not like pretty much anywhere else in the western world where people who own grazing animals need to fence them in. Thus the sheep range far and wide and destroy Iceland's native low-lying forests. Iceland's nativ…

[deleted]

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#244

Post by atmosx » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 8:23 AM UTC

avar wrote: post #6

For reasons I won't go into the farming lobby is really strong in Iceland. Sheep run free-range around the entire island, if you'd like to grow something that sheep like to eat you need to fence it in. It's not like pretty much anywhere else in the western world where people who own grazing animals need to fence them in. Thus the sheep range far and wide and destroy Iceland's native low-lying forests. Iceland's nativ…

Somewhat relevant video[1]. The introduction of wolves changed the entire landscape by pushing the deers out of the some areas.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#245

Post by xhedley » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 8:59 AM UTC

I took a holiday trip to Norway recently and parts looked like Scotland ... but with trees. I was told this was due to Norwegians no longer keeping goats since the 1950s. The before and after landscape photographs are striking. http://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/blog/reforestation-in-nor...

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#246

Post by vitro » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 9:21 AM UTC

mark-r wrote: post #192

vitro wrote: post #187

I've seen a write up of a test where tons of orange peels have been dumped and spread over big area [1]. After 16 years, ecologists returned only to find abundant flora at the areas covered with peels. Maybe to try this approach? [1] http://www.upworthy.com/a-juice-company-dumped-orange-peels-...

Great idea! Only problem is the need for large quantities of bio-waste that can be economically transported to the site. This also seems like a zero-sum problem, since the soil where the orange peels were grown is probably declining in proportion to the gains it produced elsewhere.

Of course, it makes sense only if peels or another organic material would rot in some dump area where it rots without any benefit.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#247

Post by ZenoArrow » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 9:46 AM UTC

cromulent wrote: post #86

vram22 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search for "Medieval Warm Period" in this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland Happened to be reading about Iceland (and its cuisine :) recently.

Thanks. My understanding was that the MWP is thought to be localized to Europe, not Greenland and Iceland.

Iceland and Greenland are both in Europe. Perhaps you meant mainland Europe?

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#248

Post by dayofthedaleks » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 1:54 PM UTC

delbel wrote: post #230

oh_sigh wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lyme disease isn't passed from human to human so herd immunity is irrelevant.

lyme disease can be passed human to human as a std or the womb from mother to child

(citation needed)

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#249

Post by crzwdjk » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 2:53 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #169

ckinnan wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is actually a similar problem in the Northeastern United States. Deer are overpopulated (in my area 6x traditional level) because they have no predators and hunting is restricted. The deer eat all of the hardwood saplings. In many mid-Atlantic forests there are very few 10-20 year old hard wood trees, they don't survive the deer.

Do areas of the NE not allow seasonal suburban hunts? In VA, many local parks are opened to bow hunting through winter [1] in an effort to control the deer population. Signs posted all over parks to warn users [2]. 1- https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/living/wildlife/archery/archer... 2- http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bOyirfPSn0g/Vhv3vlBCh0I/AAAAAAAA0Q...

We have very similar signs in the Blue Hills Reservation just outside Boston, but the hours are rather more restricted (I think it's just Tuesdays). So it's not completely unheard of even in the relatively urban Northeast, probably because the deer situation really is getting that dire.

Re: Iceland's attempts to replant its forests

#250

Post by CalRobert » Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 3:00 PM UTC

cpr wrote: post #51

avar wrote: post #6

For reasons I won't go into the farming lobby is really strong in Iceland. Sheep run free-range around the entire island, if you'd like to grow something that sheep like to eat you need to fence it in. It's not like pretty much anywhere else in the western world where people who own grazing animals need to fence them in. Thus the sheep range far and wide and destroy Iceland's native low-lying forests. Iceland's nativ…

I saw the same thing on the island of Achill, Ireland. All sheep are allowed to roam the island freely, so if you want anything protected, you have to fence it in. And there are no trees to speak of. That could either be because of the harsh winds on this almost-westernmost point of Ireland, or (never thought of this until now) it could be the sheep. The government pays people 50 pounds per sheep per annum, so people…

There's a gorgeous tiny forest on the Beara peninsula that I visit whenever I can. I think it's my favourite place on the whole island (Beara as a whole is happily underrated and relatively lightly touristed).

However, it's fenced in by old stone walls, and I was dismayed to see someone had driven a tractor through said wall the last time I visited and there were at least a couple sheep munching away in there.