interesting trivia...

... about this island nation: no trees. At  least none with any age or size on them. I was so curious I had to look it up and find out why the ones we have seen in our travels have been fairly small, which would indicate recently planted.

According to the information I found, a thousand years ago at least forty percent of the nation/island was covered in forest. Over the years the trees were felled to use for buildings as well as a source of heat when burned. Since the northern edge of the country is remarkably close to the Arctic Circle, I can imagine the necessity for being certain you have ample firewood stockpiled for those many months of darkness and freezing temperatures. It is possible that as each tree was felled, no one thought: "hmmm,  perhaps we should plant a replacement." It apparently never occurred to the tree cutters that the trees were  not in endless supply.

Back in the 1940s, the Forestry people began planting. We have seen places where there are many growing, but most seem to be deliberate: in neat rows, growing in tidy lines, often not a mix, but the same variety row upon row.  Places where there are some sort of evergreen, a type of fir I think. Other young trees, beginning to loose their leaves that might be beeches, as their bark looks like the beech I am familiar with. The article I read when I became curious about this treeless island reported that some type beech was a native, so it is reasonable to guess that would be a variety that would be replanted to reforest areas now bare.

Lots of smaller scrubby bushes growing out in the wild, in those areas where there livestock are pastured. My guess is they will not get much size due to living in the rocky,inhospitable environment and unceasing wind. Yesterday, all the ponies had their back-ends to the brisk constant wind, manes and tails riffling, still grazing, but providing the only protection they could from the elements. With wind a continual factor, other noticeable alternations to the landscape are berms of earth piled up in places that are obviously meant to be windbreaks. Piles of dirt covered with grasses or trees to prevent the full onslaught of the blasting north wind. It seems to be incessant, a fact of life with nothing to stop the full effect of the elements.

And the other thing I read is that when the first settlers came from other nearby lands, and were determined to stay, discovering enough arable soil to plant crops for feeding families, they disassembled their boats. Using wood to shore up homes, though most were largely below the surface to use earth as insulation. The pieces from the boat became the interior supports for their dwellings, covered them with earth to protect from the elements and established villages, governing themselves independently from other nations.