An 1100 year era of decline for birch forests in Iceland is over, with the area of natural forests growing by 130 square kilometers in the last 25 years RÚV reports.
It is estimated that birch covered 25% of the country at the time of settlement, but when birch forests in Iceland were first mapped 40 years ago not many trees remained. The Icelandic forest service has finished re-mapping the birch forests, a project that took five years. The results confirm a turning point in the history of Icelandic forests, with birch now covering 1.5% of the country.
If you want to know where the trees have ruined all view and drones are a must have to navigate, you can check out this forest map from The Icelandic forest service. The green dots are natural birch forests, yellow dots are birch shrubbery and red dots are cultivated forests.
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