Viking Impacts on Iceland
Jared Diamond weighs in on Viking thinking and actions during settlement
Erosion and Sheep, two lasting impacts made by the Viking settlers (soilissueseurope.blogspot.com)
- Iceland's colonization began in earnest around the year 870 and virtually ended by the year 930, when almost all land suitable for farming had been settled or claimed. (Diamond, 2005)
- At the time that settlement of Iceland began, one-quarter of the island's area was forested.
- The Norse settlers cleared the trees for firewood, timber, charcoal, and for pastures that were home to grazing sheep, goats, pigs, cows, and horses.
- About 80% of that original woodland was cleared within the first few decades, and 96% as of modern times, thus leaving only 1% of Iceland's area still forested. (Diamond, 2005)
- Once the original trees had been removed, grazing by sheep, and rooting by the pigs initially present, prevented seedlings from regenerating. The highlands became stripped of soil as well as of vegetation, the former grasslands of Iceland's interior became the man-made (or sheep-made) desert that one sees today, and then large eroded areas started to develop in the lowlands as well. (Diamond, 2005)
- Viking settlers had no way of knowing that Iceland's soils and vegetation were much more fragile than what they were used to ... they found themselves in an apparently lush but actually fragile environment for which their Norwegian and British experience had failed to prepare them. (Diamond, 2005)
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