200 birch trees will be planted this Saturday to honour Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the world’s first woman president.
This June 29 marks the 35th anniversary of Vigdís’ election to the presidency, and RÚV reports that the occasion will be celebrated in a manner befitting her – with the planting of 200 birch trees all across Iceland.
Vigdís was very much a conservationist. In fact, early in her presidency she made it a point to plant three trees at almost any municipality she visited: one for boys, one for girls, and one for the coming generation.
In the same spirit, The Icelandic Forestry Association will be planting three trees in every possible municipality they can reach, starting this Saturday. The trees will be between 1.5 to 2 metres tall, of the “Embla” variety (Betula pubescens).
Fun fact: the bark of this variety of birch tree is used to make Björk Liqueur.
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