Well, what could I do personally? The answer, of course, was to start reforestation in Iceland myself. Of course, one person cannot save what many generations have destroyed. But at least I could start. And that is what I did. I planted my first trees in Iceland in Munaðarnes in Borgarfjörður. The union had been looking for volunteers to help plant their summer house area. It was a lot of fun to work in a group of 15-20 young people who all had the same hobby. And in the evening, of course, there was a party. That must have been around 1985. I wasn't there just once, but often over the next few years. And those first trees have grown really great since then.
But this was only the beginning. In 1991 we learned from our acquaintances Henný and Nonni that they were planting a piece of land under the auspices of the Reykjavík Forestry Association near Pétursey. We visited them there and were impressed. Admittedly, it took us over 2 1/2 hours to drive to "Fellsmörk" (that's what the area was called), but the land itself was unmistakably reminiscent of Þórsmörk and was very wild and beautiful. We were told that it was still possible to get a plot of land and we immediately decided to join the association, sign the lease to lease and start reforestation. If we were interested, we could also set up a summer house there. The disadvantage, however, was that this was a lease agreement and the lease period was limited to 25 years. After that, the Icelandic state would get the forest, but we could keep half an acre around the future cottage. But honestly, isn't 25 years long enough?
The next few years at Fellsmörk were very instructive. And you can perhaps imagine what I mean: After two years of hard work, the results were terrible and depressing for this enthusiastic recreational forester. The winter storms had peeled and destroyed everything that had been planted. The next spring, the trees simply could not be found. The most important lesson learned was: windbreaks are missing. And what was the best way to get it? We tried different things: We stretched sacking around the trees or put plastic bottles over them, but in the end the best solution was transport pallets. They were connected to each other and joined together to form an adjoining protective wall.
This is how the country looked in the beginning.
Pallets provide a windbreak.
It would take too long to tell everything that has happened in Fellsmörk from 1992 to 2020, that is, in the 28 years since we started afforestation there. So here are some pictures, roughly in chronological order. Click on the picture below to start a slide show.