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 National Park - Skaftafell |
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Skaftafell
Skaftafell is one of three National Parks in Iceland, and one of numerous national parks and protected areas around the world forming a chain of nature reserves.
Skaftafell is the responsibility of the Nature Conservation Agency and it's role is not only to preserve these areas and all protected natural features, but also to encourage all visitors and the people of Iceland to acquaint themselves with the nature and history of the country and show consideration and support to our common goal - nature conservation.
Establishment
By the middle of the twentieth century, farming methods in Iceland had changed. Even though three families shared the Skaftafell landholding, its cultivation was difficult and a change of land-use was inevitable. The weather conditions in Skaftafell are favourable and the land was considered ideal for forestry by the Iceland Forestry Service. Around 1957 the Service began discussions with the landowners on the purchase of land suitable for forestry. The purchase never took place, as the landowners 'wanted to preserve their land and not change it into a foreign forest'.
In 1960 the suggestion was made to declare Skaftafell a National Park. The arguments were, among other things, the spectacular natural beauty of the area, including the incomparable view of Iceland's highest mountains. Other considerations were that the area boasted the biggest valley glacier, the most extensive sand flats and more fertile and varied vegetation than most other areas in the country.
In February 1961, the Nature Conservation Council (now the Nature Conservation Agency) decided to recommend the establishment of a National Park in Skaftafell. The recommendation was approved by the Ministry of Education in May the same year. Skaftafell National Park was officially established on 23 August 1968 by a government regulation.
At the beginning of the public discussion on the establishment of the National Park, the great potential for employment in the tourist sector in Iceland was pointed out, especially in light of the marked increase in the number of foreign visitors. The preservation of the country's untouched nature and distinctive features was considered a prerequisite for increased tourism.
Tourism has increased substantially in the area, partly because of the extension of the ring road across the Skeiđarársandur plain, but no less because of the attraction of Skaftafell National Park for tourists.
Discussions on the enlargement of Skaftafell National Park are in progress, and a proposal for a parliamentary resolution on declaring the entire Vatnajökull ice cap a National park has been passed.
History
The first settler of the Örćfasveit Region ('the Region between the Sands') was a woman, Ţorgerđur by name. She settled the area all the way from River Kvíá to Mt. Jökulfell by the Bćjarstađur forest. She claimed the territory by the traditional method of leading a two-year-old heifer across it from sunrise to sunset. No doubt she was a cunning woman, making use of the long summer days and even the summer solstice itself.
No hard evidence exists of people living in Iceland until well into the ninth century. The year 874 is traditionally regarded as the first year of settlement in Iceland and Ingólfur Arnarson as the first settler. He reached Iceland at the Ingólfshöfđi promontory not far from Skaftafell. The Örćfasveit area, or Hérađ milli sanda ('the Region between the Sands') as it was originally called, is very likely to have been among the most beautiful areas of the country at the time.
On the way to Iceland, Ingólfur Arnarson had thrown the pillars of his high-seat overboard hoping for a good omen. His intention was to settle where the pillars happened to wash ashore. Ingólfur sent his slaves, Karli and Vífill, to search for them. The slaves found the pillars where Reykjavík is now, and Karli is said to have exclaimed, 'To little avail did we travel across good country to live on this out-of-the-way peninsula.'
It is not unlikely that Karli had in mind the fertile land he first travelled across and where he spent his first Icelandic spring - 'slopes of birch and extensive grassland in the shelter of the king of glaciers, the tallest in Iceland. There cannot have been many more attractive places to settlers in the whole of Iceland'. Little did Karli know what fate Ingólfur had spared his descendants by moving to the 'out-of-the-way peninsula', but it was at the will of the gods that he abandoned the lush slopes and grassland beneath the glacier.
Apparently, natural catastrophes did not have a decisive effect on habitation in this period. However, an anecdote exists in the Icelandic Sagas relating how Guđmundur Arason 'the good' stopped a glacial flood on the Lómagnúpssandur flat as he crossed the river.
During the Age of Settlement and until the middle of the fourteenth century the climate in Iceland was relatively mild, the forests were large, corn could be grown, grazing in the wintertime was favourable, the glaciers were relatively small and no great floods occurred in the glacial rivers. Nature was generous to its occupants and livestock was more varied than in later times. Estimates agree that there were more cattle, goats and pigs than in a later age when sheep became predominant. The forests were much more extensive than today and were utilised from the beginning to produce coal, heat up houses and for carpentry. Deforestation soon occurred. The Bćjarstađur forest and the forest in Skaftafell are proof that this is ideal country for birch woods. Pieces of wood and root deposited in our times by the Skeiđará and Skaftafellsá rivers indicate that forests used to stand where the glacier is now.
Flora & fauna
The flora and fauna in Skaftafell are varied, owing to the diversity of local conditions between the coast and the glacier. Semi-barren glacial sediment, forested slopes and the Skaftafell heath above, first rather dry, with hillocks and stretches of gravel, but then moist soil covered with tealeaved willow and woolly willow toward the upper reaches. In between is a stretch of wetland featuring various species of starling, cotton grass and other marshland plants. About 220 species of flowering plants and ferns grow wild in Skaftafell.
A grown gravel slide at an altitude of 140 metres. Thick moss covers the ground. Birch, woolly willow, northern crowberry and blueberry are common species in this area. All in all there are 22 species.
Cottongrass wetland at an altitude of 480 metres. The prevailing species are common cottongrass and Scheuchzer's cottongrass. A total of 31 species grow in this area.
A patch of vegetation at an altitude of 660 metres, characterised by heavy snow. The most common species are least willow, alpine snakeweed, northern crowberry, creeping fescue, stiff sedge and spiked wood-rush. A total of 24 species grow in this area.
A level gravel bed at an altitude of 350 metres. About 50 per cent of the area is vegetated, moss being the prevailing species. Common flowering plants and ferns are alpine snakeweed, Arctic thyme, Icelandic bedstraw and northern crowberry. A total of 40 species.
A mount of gravel surrounded with birch bushes, at an altitude of 200 metres. The most common species are birch, Arctic thyme, Icelandic bedstraw and highland rush. A total of 25 species.
A patch at an altitude of 100 metres. The birch reaching up through the moss cover. Other common species are northern crowberry, alpine snakeweed and highland rush. A total of 22 species.
The birdlife in the National Park is varied, with more than 30 species of birds nesting in the area as there are many types of nesting ground: sandy plains, gravel beds, tussocks, marshes and woods. The great skua is the prevailing bird of the sandy plains, ptarmigan are common in heaths and tussocks grown with heather and shrubbery. Ducks and red-throated divers dwell by lakes, snipes in marshland, and falcons and ravens inhabit crags and cliffs. Redwings and redpolls live in the woods, along with wrens often seen near brooks.
Text courtesy of Náttúruvernd ríkisins
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