[footsteps]
What an incredible place.
I mean, on this side here, all around me,
we have the vastness
of this black desert.
And then we have this thin strip of grass
and birch wood that has
somehow managed to survive here.
The contrast, it's just crazy, it's
mind-blowing to see, and it represents
perfectly what Iceland
is undergoing right now.
Currently we have mostly this desert-like
landscape that you see over there,
but in the future, it could
become a lot more like this.
Grasslands, forests, and wetlands.
And in this video today, I want to tell
you about our new project that we are
starting in this desert right here.
I want to catch you up on the
reforestation work
that we have been doing.
Okay, let me hit pause there.
I went on a bit of a desert-inspired
speech that took way too long to get to
the point, so let me keep things simple.
In this video, we will be looking at
three time horizons.
The past, which is roughly this planting
season, the medium term,
which can be roughly 2024,
and the longer term, which
will be 2025 and onwards.
Each one will be a chapter in today's
story, so let's get cracking.
We set ourselves the goal to plant 1
million trees in Iceland,
and this is a bit of an aesthetic number
for communication purposes,
because what we really
want is to create forests.
But nevertheless, it works.
And for 2023, our goal was to plant
200,000 trees together with the Icelandic
Forestry Service, right here in Þjósrárdalur.
So this here is the western side of our
planting area, and as you can see, it's
absolutely gorgeous.
I mean, look at all of these
yellows, oranges, and reds.
It's completely transformed this
landscape, and this time of
the year, it looks mind-blowing.
And yeah, what the colors should also
tell you, of course, is that this is the
end of the planting season.
It's getting really cold.
I mean, I'm wearing my best home-knit
Icelandic sweater for
warmth, so it's that level of cold.
So we've decided to come here for one of the
last days of planting,
to show you a little bit
how the trees are planted,
and also why it's really tricky to plant
them in the right place,
because they have a little
bit of a Goldilocks zone.
You see, normally we would base a lot of
our planting on tree density,
because most of the ground in our
planting areas is homogeneous.
However, our planting area
here is the opposite of that.
It's covered in gravel, which is prone to
frost heaving and kills the trees,
as well as vegetation, like crowberry,
bilberry, and woolly willow,
which are quite rooty
and hard to plant in.
And then there is the moss that is good
for planting, but only at certain depths.
So to probably showcase the
struggle that is planting here,
we joined Will from Delta
Forest and his crew of planters,
so that you can see some
of this work first-hand.
What we're doing here is area planting,
and we're specifically going after the
best microsites for the trees.
So in some areas it's going
to be a bit more dense, fine.
Some areas is going to be
really sparse, also fine.
It's not like forestry stuff where they
want rigid lines two by two,
doesn't matter what the ground is, the
tree goes in exactly 200
centimeters after the next one.
So yeah, I mean, density does matter,
but in places like this where it's just
hard to get trees to grow,
I think you want to be worrying more
about the microsites
and where the individual
trees are going than the density.
And this meant that when Ellie was trying
to assess the results
at the various polygons,
density was simply an unusable metric.
This puts a lot more responsibility in
the hands of the planting teams,
and it means that it's
crucial that the individual planters
are able to find the right places to
plant, what Will calls micrositing.
But that is easier said than done.
The thing is, and they say they say plant
in the shallower moss,
but it's like, where is it, man?
How are we supposed to
fit 200,000 trees in this?
If we're only planting
in the shallower moss.
Will has a point here.
The planters are often stuck between a
rock and a hard place.
And this was great to hear, actually.
You see, we like to get the facts whether
they are pretty or not.
And Will, who follows our projects here
on YouTube, he knows this.
He wants things to work well, so he felt
it was important to be
candid about these challenges.
In the long run, this will allow the
process to continue being transparent,
and to improve in the coming years.
You see, the work this planting season
suffered a lot from a tricky dynamic,
where the planning crew
would come and survey a site,
but they wouldn't be able to test the
depth of the moss in all places,
as this was simply unfeasible.
So the planters were left to do a lot of
the micrositing themselves,
which as you saw, can be quite tricky.
In addition to that, we had some bad
weather in September,
which made things a bit more tricky.
One of the 4x4s from one of
the crews kept breaking down,
which is why Will was brought in in
October, just as the
snow was starting to fall.
All of these challenges meant that we
planted 181,816 trees,
which was just shy of
the intended 200,000.
Not too bad, given the
circumstances, I think.
In terms of costs, the IFS bore the
logistics and infrastructure costs,
which meant that we essentially paid
around 1 euro per tree planted.
And to put this into perspective, in
places like Scotland,
we will often plant a
tree at 3 or 4 pounds.
So even if a few of these trees were
planted in a less
than desirable situation,
the overall project was
still very cost efficient.
So I would like to say that our work this
year definitely got a passing grade,
but it could be better.
And based on this, we did some planning
meetings with the IFS team,
and we concluded that the best is to slow
things down a bit next year,
to allow for some more
detailed mapping of the sites,
so that it's easier for the
planters to do their work.
This will also allow for the improvement
of some much needed infrastructure,
to fend off some unwanted visitors.
Okay, so over there, we can see the enemy
number one that these trees face,
which is of course the sheep that roam
the highlands in the summer.
And with this lens, we're actually able
to see a group of sheep
on the other side of this valley, where
some of our trees are also planted.
So that's not too good, but they're
really difficult to manage.
Here in yellow, you can see the existing
fence that needs some repairs,
and in blue, where a
new fence is planned.
The damage done by sheep
has not been extensive,
but it does merit some attention.
And that wraps up 2023.
I think it was a successful result when
you take into account
all of the different challenges, but for
2024, we want to switch things up a bit.
Now, we've been on the lookout for some
exciting opportunities
to restore new areas, which is why we
posted a small notice
through the Icelandic
Farmers Association.
They have this little newspaper that has
quite an audience in Iceland,
and we were super
excited when we got a lead.
So today we're checking out
the potential new project area
that is in the valley between our
existing project area and Hekla.
And we're meeting with two people who
decided to buy a piece of land here
and try to restore it, just for the sake
of bringing nature
back, which is pretty cool.
This area was occupied by
about 25 farms in the past,
but in 1882, a huge
sandstorm destroyed it all.
There were about 2,000 sheep and 2,000
horses that were lost in one go.
The storm was absolutely devastating,
and that thin strip that I showed you in
the beginning of the video
was all that was left.
Somehow, it was sheltered from the wind
by the mountains in the back,
which led to this very strange
pizza-sliced shape of trees and grass
surrounded by black desert.
Now, this was, of course,
an absolute freak event,
but one which would have
been a lot less serious
if the landscape had more forest to block
the progression of the sand and the ash,
which is, of course, where
we come into the picture.
How come you have this land?
What's the background? What's the story?
We wanted to have a
land in the countryside
where we would plant
trees, have space for ourselves,
so when this opportunity came up,
this was a farm that
went bankrupt 10 years ago
and had been owned by a bank ever since.
So all of the housing
is in very bad shape,
and that's why the price
was right for us to afford it,
and part of it is not
suitable for normal farming.
All of the areas here in the lava,
but it's suitable for other
interesting projects like that,
the ones that we are talking about now.
So you just buy it
privately, the two of you,
and you want to bring it back now?
Yeah, that's very cool.
They showed us around the land,
and over the next few weeks,
we made a plan together on how to go
about restoring the area.
We will start from the
back of the property,
where conditions are more sheltered,
and the land has already been fertilized.
So this here is where we hope to be
planting some trees next year,
and as you can see, it looks a lot better
than the part up there,
where we were next to
the narrow strip of birch.
And the main reason is the lupine,
which apparently was air-dropped here
around 20 years ago,
and what it does is it
binds nitrogen in the soil
and creates better
conditions for the birch to thrive.
And some trees have
already been planted here,
such as this little fella here,
and they're managing quite okay.
But yeah, we hope to do a
lot more here next year,
so that we can transform this lupine
landscape into a proper birch wood.
The goal is to plant the
first 25 hectares next year,
so that should be around
32,000 trees to kick things off.
Also, in 2024, the area nearest to the
river will be seeded
with a mixture of seed
prepared by the Soil Conservation Agency
to improve the conditions and make it
ready for planting next year.
The whole plan has been reviewed by the
Icelandic Forestry Service,
which should help make it watertight.
And what I think is really
cool about this new project
is that we're working
with a very degraded area
that could grow from barren
grounds to a thriving forest
in a relatively short period of time.
Here, in this shot of a nearby area, you
can see that it's possible.
These here are young birch woods next to
what is effectively a desert.
Now, that will keep us busy in 2024,
but longer term, we're looking for
something big to sink our teeth into.
Which is why, for 2025, we've been
considering two ideas.
To hire someone full-time in
Iceland and to buy some land.
Let's start with the land,
because if we decide to do that,
we will need that
full-time person anyway.
And I think I'd like to start by
introducing you to our hubs.
Currently, at Mossy Earth, we are
prioritizing five locations
where we are building a bigger presence.
In Portugal, in the Mira
catchment with Matt and Tiago.
In the rainforest of
Ecuador with Freddy and Adriana.
In the coral reefs of
Indonesia with Ellie and Yudi.
In the highlands of Scotland with Isla.
And, logically, also in Iceland, given
that we have worked here for a few years.
In each of these locations, we're
essentially hiring and developing teams
to take on landscape scale rewilding.
And that often means
buying strategic bits of land.
So far, we've only done so in Ecuador,
but it immediately
felt like the right move.
We had some skin in the
game, this opened doors for us,
and we could use it as a stepping stone
for bigger and wider projects.
This is the logic we want
to apply to Iceland in 2025.
And before we touch on
what we are looking for,
I would just like to remind you that the
only reason we can do all of this work
is because of our Mossy Earth members
that support our projects
with a monthly subscription.
We try to keep everything
as transparent as possible
by showing many of our project actions on
our Mossy Earth Field Notes channel,
by reporting everything in our
transparency dashboard,
our field report, our financial reports,
and also the regular updates from our
biologists that all
members can engage with.
It's fun, but above
all, it's really impactful.
So if you'd like to join, then please
consider becoming a
member at mossy.earth.
Now, during the coming year, we will be
looking at which areas might be suitable
for such a landscape scale project.
And we've been mostly
looking at two intervention types.
One is the reforestation type work we'll
be doing in 2024 in super barren areas.
And the other is wetlands.
You see, Iceland has a
ton of beautiful wetlands,
but many of them were
drained with subsidy money.
And the way that they managed to dry up
all of those wetlands
was through these huge ditches here.
I mean, look at the size of this.
It's pretty much a trench.
And what's incredible is that they have
them in every single field.
You have one here, one there,
and they just keep on going.
And they do a really good
job at drying up this area.
I'd never seen ditches like
these before I visited Iceland.
You can literally stand in them, and it
feels quite surreal.
Now, these days, there
are subsidies to fix them,
which is why we probably don't need to go
and fund those types of projects.
However, if it were to be included in a
land that we would be managing,
we could make sure that it would become a
proper bird paradise.
So this is what a
restored wetland looks like.
And as you can see, it's pretty solid.
And over there, you can see the
agricultural fields.
A lot of the wetland would
have looked like this before,
but we couldn't learn
exactly how they restored it,
because the farm up there
that owns all of this land
has changed hands in the meantime.
But we know that this
was restored by people.
And it's really interesting to see that
this is a possible outcome
for one of our projects.
Now, to do some research,
we visited several wetlands.
And even though it was
definitely off-season,
we still saw plenty of birds,
including a distant
glimpse of a Gyr Falcon
that was preying on the smaller birds.
So today, we spent a day going between
wetlands like this one right here.
And all I can say is that they're
mind-blowingly beautiful.
They come in all sorts
of colors and shapes,
and it's really amazing to see.
And even though it's not the right season
to see different bird species,
that would be the spring,
we managed to get lucky and caught quite
a few glimpses of different species.
But above all, what today has taught me
is that these places
really are worth protecting.
They're so rich, they're so biodiverse,
and I can't wait for us
to find the right projects
to start bringing some
of these ecosystems back.
Now, the next step in this work is to
research a good opportunity.
And for that, we need some help,
which is why we want to build a network.
We're putting a form in the description,
where you can leave us your contact
and how you think you
could help with this work.
I'd also love to plan a small meetup
the next time we go to Iceland for work.
And this would be the
contact list for that as well.
And finally, if you're just finishing a
degree in biology or ecology,
if you're full of energy and you want to
take on a big challenge,
then be sure to fill in the form too,
as we are gathering leads for a full-time
role to represent us in Iceland.
The only caveat is that you
have to be living in Iceland.
I'm really excited about everything that
we are brewing up here in Iceland.
There are so many ideas
and so many things to do.
And yeah, if you're excited as well,
please remember that the best way to
support this project
and everything that we are
doing here and everywhere else
is to become a member at mossy.earth.
And also, don't forget, there
are forms in the description
to help us with your ideas.
We are hiring someone here,
and of course, we'll keep
you up to date on how it goes
with purchasing a bit of desert to get
our hands on and restore.
Until next time.
Cheers!