Restoring the North – International conference in Selfoss Iceland

Conference excursion was on 22. October. Excursion theme was: ecosystem resilience to natural hasards. First the headquarters of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) were visited, which are in the vincinity of Mt. Hekla. All ecosystems in that area have been heavily affected by volcanic ash from the repeated eruptions in the volcano. After visiting the SCS the tour went to Thorsmörk, which was heavily affected by the 2010 eruption in Eyjafjallajökull. There conference participants inspected the effect of volcanic ash deposition on restored birch woodland vs heavily degraded ecosystems bordering on the woodland.

Participants in the ReNo conference excursion visited the site of a flash flood associated with the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010.

The conference showed that although much has been achived in ecological restoration in the Nordic countries, there are still many threats to ecosystems in the region. This needs to be addressed. Furthermore, evaluation of restoration projects in the region was deemed to be incomplete. This was seen as a major obstacle to adaptive management and improvement of restoration methods in the north.

A list of participants in the ReNo conference can be found here.

Part of the ReNo conference excursion group at the top of Mt.Valafell in Thorsmörk.