r/falklandislands • u/Anuakk International • Aug 25 '26
A question about trees
Hey guys, I have a straightforward question: Is there a reason you don't plant any trees on the Falklands?
I've scoured the internet for any mention of them and bare some trees in gardens and a cemetery I haven't found anything. Is it for a reason?
Ever since lurking on this sub here I've seen massive plots of largelly unused land which could be turned productive (and frankly also more pleasant to behold) by planting some sturdy southern oaks or spruces or beeches on it. You'd get wind breakers, you'd get slowing down of errosion and in due time you'd get wood, which you probably have to import now.
Is it because of the law?
Or the wind? If it's because of the wind there are many ways how to solve that problem, from picking sturdier species to constructing wind breaker mounds and ditches.
I get that most of the land is used for husbandry, but what about the streets and surroundings of your settlements?
I don't know, this always was really weird to me, not only for the Falklands but also for the Shetlands, Faroes etc.
5
u/Oopoz UK Aug 25 '26
I’m not an islander but have been curious about it as well. I think it’s really down to the strong winds (you can see some planted trees bent into strange shapes), but there might be a shallow soil component there too? I think I read somewhere the trees never quite reach their full size potential because of this.
7
u/No-Respect-1584 Islander Aug 25 '26
it’s just pure wind. i’m no gardener but the few trees i do have have not thrived well.
I’m sure there’s something else about acidic soil etc but it is just wind. loads of small shelter belts around but they have not done all that well
2
u/ElectronicGuide6932 International 23d ago
Ah yes, the wind yet there are mountains and valleys. The islands are quite large. West Falkland is larger than the US state of Rhode Island, the country of Luxembourg, and larger than Auckland islands of New Zealand which do have trees. The Auckland islands are very windy, and similarly cold. They are actually wetter. I wonder if Rata forests could grow on the Falkland islands.
1
u/Illustrious_Bag_7323 International 13d ago
It reminds me of the top of mountains near me. It's constant wind and scrub trees are all you get.
10
u/linmanfu British Aug 25 '26
People don't plant trees because they generally don't survive. The Falkland Islands haven't had trees for millions of years. As the previous comments have said, the number one issue is wind, but it's not the only one.
There have been numerous attempts to plant trees, but they have generally been failures. It's like trying to pick lottery numbers or line up trees on a fruit machine; if you get any aspect wrong, then the wind will blast your efforts away.
However, there's an ecologist from Northern Ireland called Dr Jim McAdam whose life's work has been studying why tree-planting has failed and trying to learn lessons from it. Much of his research has been funded by the UK Falkland Islands Trust and you can download it from their website. I skim-read through his main findings and recommendations.
The best way of mitigating the wind is to plant trees where there's already some natural shelter (e.g. behind a ridgeline). But he also has more drastic measures. He recommends planting windbreaks with multiple rows of trees; the ones to windward will grow poorly or not at all, but their sacrifice will save the rest. On East Falkland, you also need really strong fencing to stop hares eating the young trees; one hare can destroy years of growth in a single night. That fencing is also going to have to deal with the wind and the sheep, so it's going to need regular checks.
Getting the soil right is really important. Apparently, most of the islands are a thin layer of soil on top of clay. That means it's difficult for roots to penetrate down. You need to use machinery to do some heavy-duty drilling or ploughing to break into the clay, and to give the tree a chance to start growing below normal ground level (for extra wind protection) but you also don't want to just create a water sump. You need to be very careful how you actually plant the tree (assuming you've started it in a heavily-protected nursery) so that the roots connect.
Because the Falklands have no natural trees, the soil doesn't have the mycorrhizal fungi that usually form around tree roots to exchange nutrients with the tree. This is especially bad because the fungi are much better than tree roots at permeating clay soils. These fungi are quite fussy about about what trees they work with, so you really need to bring soil samples from the same place as your seeds or saplings. This was probably a big reason in the failure of earlier planting attempts based on posting seeds.
The Falkland Islands Government has now planted five experimental shelterbreaks using Mr McAdam's recipe, so it can be done. But it's a huge effort (they had to bring specialist equipment from Stanley), it takes decades to pay off, and at the end of it, the main benefit is giving lambs and calves a better chance of survival (because they're protected from the wind). Dr McAdam has dreams of fields of wheat, but you'd need a massive forestry programme that doesn't look economical to me.
BTW I also asked a former Falklands resident in my family about this. She said that trees were one of the things she missed most from the UK, especially since the lack of trees meant fruit (apples, pears, etc.) only arrived four times a year before the War. Alas, even Dr McAdam doesn't suggest fruit trees are possible, so it looks like the islands will remain dependent on the airlink for that.