In pictures of the capital city/town (Stanley), trees are growing in people’s yards.
So why don’t trees grow on the open land?
Is it the high winds that prevent trees from establishing roots?
The island’s climate is not too cold-there is no permafrost layer (that prevents tree growth).
Were attempts ever made to establish forests/timber farms there?
This journal article says its a combination of the soil (mostly clay) and the strong winds.
“Four strong winds that blow lonely
Seven seas that run high
All these things keep blowing our trees away,
And our good times are all gone,
Just like Malvina Hoffman,
But our sheep all hope you will come back this way.”
- Ian Tyson, slightly modified
trained Argentine sabotage beavers.
I just KNEW it!
Could you eventually get around this by importing soil and planting mature trees as windbreaks to then gradually expand by the detritus from the trees forming new soil and compost?
The sheep probably don’t help.
AIUI the soil is so poor that it’s only fit for sheep.
And, of course, the sheep are light enough to not set off the mines.
It would be possible to manufacture usable soil on site by mixing the native clay and peat with crushed rock and composted vegetable matter (seaweed perhaps, or green manure crops).
Mature trees would be a bad idea. They wouldn’t have all the roots of a native-grown tree, and would be more susceptible to blowing over, especially right after being planted. If you had the soil, planting seedlings would be better. They’ll grow up accounting for the wind.
Perhaps the residents (what do they call themselves? Falkers?) Just enjoy striding about the windswept fastness of their island stronghold.
Falkland Islanders.
Iceland and Scotland use to be covered in trees, whats their excuse?
Well it gets pretty windy around here on Vancouver Island, a rainforest, and we get trees growing on rocky slopes and rocky islands with minimal soil cover.
The sheep may have something to do with it. The eat everything including tree shoots right down to the roots.
As I understand it, there were no trees when the first settlers arrived.
I blame the penguins. Look at Antarctica. No trees there either.
I don’t know about Iceland, but in Scotland they got chopped down. There’s only about 1% of the original Caledonian forest left, but there are projects on the go to plant lots more native species. The country is about 17% woodland, but a big chunk of that is commercial plantations.
Viking sabotage beavers, way back in the 9th Century. See post #4.
For chopping the trees down, or not reforesting faster than they’re doing?
There are a few carefully tended trees there, especially around Stanley. There is also at least one plantaion of pine trees.
