We’re Rewilding Iceland’s Deserts - here’s how 

Mmmmm

You guys ever think about potentially planting Greenland Mountain Ash? If you find seeds mind telling us how you get em?

Wish y'all would pick Nw Ohio and SE Michigan as areas you'd come rewild!! We need wildlife highway crossings everywhere

Why don't you plant pine in Iceland to increase biodiversity?

Hey Duarte, where can I apply to work on this project for the 2024 planting season?

😂

Where is the mower tho

@@inqizzo6:53

Or Plants vs Sheep

Wabby waboo

Glad you can see the progress that is being made in this landscape! - Cheers, Duarte

Love to hear it, keep us updated ;)

Iceland use to have massive forests. Bring them back is great for the environment

How much does it cost to fly there

@@TKUA11 Depends where you're flying from and with which airline as well as when you book and what time of year you're going. I generally fly from Manchester Airport, UK with Easyjet and like going in March in particular or November. Winter months are generally cheaper. Book the day the flights are released from Easyjet and you'll get the best prices. Pre-pandemic, I could get return flights for as little as £50, once I got it for £46! Post pandemic it's closer to £65/70. Pre pandemic flights included a cabin bag. Post pandemic they only include a bag that can fit under the seat. So, now prices are more expensive as I need to bring on a cabin bag, too. So, you can easily add on an extra £80 onto the flight for this, annoyingly. But yeah, still you're probably looking all in maybe £140 return if you include a cabin bag nowadays and book on the first day flights are released. Hope this helps!

Thanks. I was patiently waiting to hear this explanation in the video

Exactly how I feel. So much doom and gloom out there, and then these videos show that change can be for the better! ❤

And this is what only one person can achieve. Imagine what a whole army of philantrophists can do.

​@@Anonymous-bm8sv"We" is one person? It's a team

We have to be candid, it is after all no our money to spend but our member's money! Glad to hear that it is appreciated. Challenges and mistakes will keep happening but we are moving in the right direction. - Cheers, Duarte

Also feels like I can learn something this way.

You can think of it this way: There are 375,000 people on Iceland. If everybody had managed to plant five trees that survived, it would have added up to almost two million new trees. You've done well!

There has been a lot of progress made in planting trees in Iceland in the last 20 years, the south of iceland espesially 👌

More to the point.. trees don't live in Iceland. Your 5 survivors were aberrations. Incredibly tough environment for any species to take hold let alone populate into a forest. By way of a personal planting contrast.. I planted 25,000 black spruce in Canada when I was 16 in the late '70s. Those trees were probably harvested about 10 years ago at the latest.

t@@davidpetersen1Trees used to live on Iceland, but humans changed that

That would have been great! - Duarte

Well, wooden ships cannot be built from thin air. Sooooo... I mean, Italy was covered in woods before the Roman Empire

@@sebastiansatorius3242 To be fair, most of deforestation is due to animal agriculture nowadays.

the average person was not wealthy enough to afford education, the ability to read being the most important factor for both technological and conscious education today, you're watching a video from across the planet in real time if need be be glad you have the ability to improve the world today, than lament for what was impossible a few centuries ago

​@Pilvenuga it doesn't take a formal education to understand these concepts. Folks have and do understand that their practices are harmful in the long run, but they are concerned with food today for them and their families. Food insecurity is a huge driver of this ecological destruction, not ignorance. If we would.get our heads removed from our rears, and turned a few sky scrapers into giant greenhouses to feed our cities, this ecological recovery could happen far, far faster. That and collaborating with chefs and restaurateurs on pushing the foods that are easy and efficient to grow in that manner. Then we can make some moves.

Exactly!

Your words mean a lot to us! Thank you for watching our videos. It is also a great form of support! - Cheers, Duarte

Glad to see it appreciated! We have had some newcomers to the team that are starting to make an impact :) - Cheers, Duarte

That's great, it shows!

Just commenting to make your videos reach more people 😊

Always appreciated!

just reiterating this. The visual styles of the maps were terrific!

Thank you Grant! - Cheers, Duarte

Thank you for the support :) - Cheers, Duarte

Thank you for the extra ideas! Added to the list. Happy holidays! - Cheers, Duarte

Yup, there's a reason why fungus was king of the land rather than plants before enough plants died to generate soil. Fungus can do all sorts of cool things to rocks and soil that plants just can't in themselves. Things plants evolved to rely on.

Wetlands do hold more Carbon, but planting trees in Iceland isn't really about Carbon capture, it is about restoring the ecosystems on the island ruind by humans. Before humans settled Iceland in the late 800s there was big areas of the island covered by Birch forest. During the millenium after settlement all of these where cut down for sheep pasture. Reforesting Iceland is about rectifying this mistake of the past and giving wildlife in Icland better conditions.

​@@NethDugan Not only can they affect the soil but most plant species including trees have symbiotic relationships with fungi that inhabit their roots called mycorrhiza, a well known example being the truffle. In exchange for the plant giving the fungi resources to stay alive the fungi's mycelium spreads out in a much denser pattern and acts as an extension of the plant roots, effectively giving them far more surface area to find water and nutrients. Makes them more hardy against root borne diseases and rot as well. There's a specific kind of mycorrhiza to trees though, and there probably aren't any viable spores left in that soil since there haven't been trees there for a long time, so you'd need to add them when planting. You'd also need to research which fungi species to use because some are specific to a particular tree species while others are generalists and form symbiosis with more than one tree species. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza

@mossyearth I want to do this as a job I am going back to school to do so. In specific, mushrooms. They are the most important part of rebuilding forests

Thank you! We are doing our best :) - Cheers, Duarte

It is a very strange place!

I would love for that to be the case as well! What a special habitat. - Cheers, Duarte

Thank you! It is always good to hear that :) - Cheers, Duarte

Eucalyptus causes desertification and aridness to form and caused many plants and animals to dissappear, hence australians stark landscape lacking many animals and laking edable plats and plant divercity. In india in some states they are banned to plant as the damage they cause is noticable. The absolute dominant spread of eucalyptus in australia is recent - 15000 years ago and is tied to tge arrival of austroloidic humans who used fire hunting. Australias deserts have much higher rainfall than other deserts in the world and should infact be couvered with grass and trees like a savanna woodland. Once this was the case. Australia has many species tgat can survive on very low rainfall and provide food for large and small aninald, the eucalyptus has no food for any animal but some koalas.. It has no fruit and very little flowers. It destroys soil and gives no canopy. It also cannot survive in deserts so it crowds the areas where more water and plants are and it takes over and destroys the soil. They cause fires, as they can coppice they survive almost any fire while most productive species canno survive. As they dont create a leaft mat and dont have a canopy and cant survive on very low rainfall they burn out the other trees and dry the land out. You will see the soil in a eucalyptus infested area will be nothing but hard rocky clay. In the deserts once huge acacia forests exsisted, this allowed australian megafauna to browse across the country as these plants have eddable seeds and leaves, thry cannot survive fires. In the wetter forests on the coasts a broad range of nut bearing and seed and fruit producing trees exsisted creating a dense wet canopy forest. This now nolonger exsists almost anywhere but far noth queensland. So even damp eucalyptus forests have no food in them.. Humans are the main cause although id argue thatvthe eucalyptus is so well evolved it could take over any place, it could take over england or ireland or turkey or south carolina with enough time, it grows tall, has long lasting seeds, has a short life cycle, ect ect and all it neds is one fire to get well established.. Once its in its only a matter of time. Europes tallest trees are all eucalypts planted in the last 90 yeard.. I say cut every singly one done and plant acacias, black bean, bunya pines, lillypilly ect ect and you will have a lush vibrant productive land. Also dont use decidious, use canopy forming evergreens, native to australia, timor and the dryer parts ofnew zealand or png. Depending your climate zone in australia. These trees with form a canopy and their fruits and seeds and leaves will form mulch. For example beach hibiscus give great cover, its native looks fantastic and can grow in many place it is a lowlying fast growing tree with a good canopy, also dont just think grasses, think what australian eucalypts woodland lacks, vines, ferns ect., clumping plants with bulbs. These will help the soil production.

@@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367 very well said, I have been cutting down the pest-categorised Sugar Gums on my property, they are the worst of the worst species and now things are starting to grow

@@itsoktoberight4431 nice, yes, remove them all. Its hard to kill them off quickly but if you keep it up you will see a huge chsnge in wildlife too. Another thing many gumtrees in wetter areas have is fungus in their roots that kills the tree and also other trees around them but the gums go so fast they are dying as they grow and just get replaced but other species just succumb to the fungus. Southern European trees like oaks, ash, plane trees olive ect grow very well in australia as do some chinese trees, the problem is these trees all drop their leaves when its dry and can be burn easily especially if near to eucalyptus trees which are real fire starters. Id go for the best canopy you can create quickly. Where in australia are you?. Further south species that are suited better will be quite different

You might want to shred some ratio of mulching leaf litter because, as good as their moisture retention can be, it's locking out new growth in the understory (as to serve that trees few offspring) Ps consider getting some fungi involved, degraded soil often lacks diversity

​@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367 this is the most interesting comment I have ever read on RU-vid

Thank you! That is great to hear :) - Cheers, Duarte

❤ Go get 'em! We're depending on folks like you to guide the change we need in the world. Best of luck!

Glad you enjoy the project! I have a soft spot for Iceland as well and I'm quite excited to see it improve! - Cheers, Duarte

Thanks for the tip! - Cheers, Duarte

Thank you and I agree! Its progress :) - Cheers, Duarte

Glad they have this effect! - Cheers, Duarte

Glad it brings you some hope. I think if we all do our best the future could be great! - Cheers, Duarte

Haha thanks! The membership does so much that it is all we would ever ask for. Its amazing what a few thousand people together can do. A big thank you for the support! - Cheers, Duarte

Glad you enjoyed it Paul! - Cheers, Duarte

Estamos a trabalhar num projecto novo! Keep an eye on the channel :) - Cheers, Duarte

Thank you! - Cheers, Duarte

Thank you Liesl! Your support is much appreciated! I like to think of Mossy Earth as a village of a few thousand people from all over the world that can make a difference regardless of where they live! - Cheers, Duarte

Alder is also a nitrogen fixer.

It is a fascinating place with all its weird landscapes and I think a few more forests would make it even cooler :) - Cheers, Duarte

Exactly! It is good we have it in the area. - Cheers, Duarte

Thank you for the support! - Cheers, Duarte

Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad you like the project :) - Cheers, Duarte

😂 I truly got lost on that occasion! But I appreciate the sentiment 😂 - Cheers, Duarte

If you look through their earlier videos, you'll see that that is one of the big things they do: filling in the understory once the anchor trees are in place. It's one of the really unique things about this organization! They think about the big ecological picture and full ecosystem health, from the soil up, not just the charismatic species or a set of checklists on the fundraiser ledgers. The trees have to be established first for the understory plants to survive, but you can see older plantings in other videos and what understory species they bring in to complete the system.

I think we hired the Dutch to do it in the 16th. century. They had the expertise from reclaiming their land from the sea.

Thank you! It is really nice to hear that the videos are as appreciated as the projects. - Cheers, Duarte

Glad you enjoyed the video! - Cheers, Duarte