Sounds like your organic material is almost completely wiped out. I'm no expert, but here are my thoughts.

I wouldn't try to "work in" anything, the job is way too big. I would throw down all the dead plant material I can get on top of it, literally tons of it. Any kind, doesn't matter, you desperately need material. If you've got a tree trimming service local that will drop off truckloads of shredded wood and leaves for free (works in some places, where they'd have to pay to dump normally), that would be ideal.

I wouldn't expect it to do anything productive the first year or so, this time would be for growing soil, not plants. I would seriously consider introducing some weeds that are easy to deal with or work around - hardy pioneer plants that aren't picky about where they live, and can help with attracting life and building soil atop that barren rock. I would try to introduce samples of healthy garden or forest soil around the area, not to plant in before it's ready, but just to bring in the fungus, protozoa, insects, annelids, bacteria, and other important members of the soil food web, to colonize that organic material and start turning it into soil.

I would research cover crops suitable to that area, pick one that's perennial or can re-seed itself, and be ready to broadcast seeds as soon as things have broken down enough to support plant life. I might even scatter the seeds ahead of time so they're ready to go when they can, but that might be a bad idea depending on how many seed-eating critters are in the area. In any case, once I've got some soil starting to develop, I would want roots in the ground to provide structure and support underground microfauna/flora, and most of the parking space taken up to prevent the pioneer weeds from taking over completely.

Above all, I'd remind myself to be patient. Soil is a living community, you can't have it by just slamming the chemistry and proportions back into shape. It needs food, shelter, and time to grow.

Return the ground to pre-grazing condition, for the purpose of reducing erosion and sequestering carbon. "Pre-grazing condition" is a mix of low forests, grasslands and berrylands. Erosion is the most serious concern - without enough plants holding the ground in place, it's prone to slump - indeed, there's a place on my land where there was a landslide something like 6 years ago, and a fence I built near the river at the bottom of the canyon had a boulder roll into it one winter, off an eroding hillside.

There are bogs in some locations (not where I want to restore). While it's long been tradition in Iceland to drain them for agricultural use, we've been moving away from that in recent years, which is a good thing - draining them is bad for the environment. I certainly wouldn't consider it. I actually kind of like them because they're iron bogs; you get this rainbow shimmer on the surface (which I first mistakenly thought was motor oil) from the iron oxidized by bacteria in the bogs. There's also some lovely cottony grasses that grow in them.

As far as wildlife, the land is habitat to a variety of local ground-nesting bird species who lay their eggs among grass and moss (most notably: whimbrel, eurasian oystercatcher, black-tailed godwit, common snipe)). They prefer grassy / mossy terrain to open, exposed terrain; their young are designed to camouflage among it. As for local plants, it's the exact same species on the eroding surfaces as elsewhere, just in much lower density.

Actually, there are tree trimmings available here. Iceland isn't zero percent forest, it's around 1% forest, which on a country of 100 thousand square kilometers means around 1 thousand square kilometers, which is no small amount (and yes, there's forestry work in them). And Reykjavík residents certainly create their own fair share of yard waste. It's not an acquisition problem, it's more of a transport problem, having to hike in tree and yard clippings. Also, winds are very intense, so anything I'd lay down would likely get blown into the canyon or the swamps. Horse manure is more appropriate and works very well - I do use in small places, but it's so heavy, and I have a lot of land to cover :Þ Even just spreading it out from a dumped pile is exhausting.

Might not be a bad idea to consult Landgræslan. I'd previously contacted the forestry service, which gives out trees for planting for free (within conditions). The problem is, though 8 hectares may sound like a lot, by Icelandic standards it's tiny; my land is too small to qualify.

Your article notes: "The main method being used is to fertilise and re-seed." So I guess it sounds like I'm on the right path. Interesting that they're working with fertilizer-coated seed, that might be worth looking into - so long as it's local species. Iceland often has kind of an attitude of "let's get something, *anything* growing, and then worry about switching back toward native plants later". While I can get onboard that with trees (anybody will gladly come in and chop down your "non-native" forest for you if you want ;) ), I'm more hesitant with herbaceous plants. For example, I could easily collect and sow nootka lupine - it's taken over large chunks of the country, after it was introduced for soil restoration. And it does restore the soil, and is quite beautiful too. But do I really want an aggressive non-native on my land for the next several decades until the soil's in good enough shape that local plants can compete again?

I expect where I am that enough seed blows in on the wind, regardless.

I would ask the university agriculture department for recommendations. Iceland is way out of our usual area.

BUT, in the meantime ... erosion is a common problem all over.

To reduce erosion with what you can collect on-site or carry in:

• Make several bands of rock across slopes, level to slow down water. (like contour planting, but with rocks)

• Then plant stuff uphill the rocks. Plant anything that will root and grow in that area, which might not be grass.

• Starting at the very top of any eroded channel, make wicker (woven willow) or rock dams like this picture. Plant willows behind the dams, and if you use fresh willow branches for the uprights of woven wicker dams, they will often root and grow.
  http://www.nzdl.org/gsdl/collect/envl/archives/HASH01d3.dir/p024b.gif

• Collect and scatter seeds of the native grasses and other plants whenever you can, into places they will thrive.

When was the land last grazed, Karen? Your last sentence may well be the key. If the ground is fenced it could start regenerating by itself with a natural succession. After grass and herbaceous plants I'm imagining that birch and willow might be some of the first things coming in on the wind. Would that be likely?

It's been "fenced" (and when I bought it several years ago I reinforced and extended the fencing), but it's an almost impossible task to keep the sheep out. The winds routinely take down fence segments (had wind gusts at one point measured over 70 m/s (157mph) - that's what happens when you have no forests in your immediate area and sit in the North Atlantic!), and even if they didn't, one of the borders is a very winding river at the bottom of a canyon that would be almost impossible to fence. And I don't know if you've ever tried to fence the eroding side of a canyon, but it doesn't work very well; I've completely given up on it. It's even harder than fencing through marshes, which I have to do in places. I do my best to keep them out, and chase them out when I find them, but some will always get in - at least until I can move out there and get a dog and thus have a "full time employee" on chasing duty ;) Not an option at present, but hopefully will be in a year or two.

Yeah, this is a climate and set of conditions far outside of my personal norm, and more than likely, not something with which the majority of participants here have experience. As floral recommends, I would definitely seek recommendations from a local resource. From what I gather so far though, you'll need a 'progressive' viewpoint. I say that because it sounds like the common land usage is sheep, and you want someone who is in line with your desire to see a more native approach. Native lands, once restored, can usually handle strays, but I can see the problem of getting that started when the strays strike before grass stands are established.

Are there natives that you can use as pioneer species that sheep won't eat in such a sparse environment?

How about fencing an easily accessible limited area to start with? Can you do electric fencing? That could act as a protected reservoir for building up native species. I am familiar with sheep as I do a lot of walking on open upland moorland here. Their main aim in life seems to be to kill themselves and they delight in getting caught in fences, stuck in hedges, waterlogged, bog bound and pursuing any other way they can find to get themselves in trouble. I don't know what your local laws are on dogs but over here a farmer is legally entitled to shoot a dog which is worrying sheep.

I'm imagining that the local sheep are hefted to the area and will eat absolutely anything.

I was told by the neighbors that electric fences don't work well on sheep - they're mainly for horses and cattle. Not just because sheep are more insistent about where they want to go (which they are), but because the wool helps insulate them. And yes, they're eating machines. :Þ First year with the land I planted a bunch of birch trees and berry bushes. Which intruding sheep eagerly ate to the ground :Þ Heck, they even sometimes take a nibble at a rhododendron that I planted in a sheltered spot, and those are supposedly poisonous :Þ I've been switching most of my plantings to conifers and thorny plants because of them (note that planting trees and bushes is a long-term activity - there's so much land that it goes *very* slowly - not just in terms of time planting, but because I need so many that I have to grow them from seed)

The areas needing restoration the most are rather patchy rather than being all clustered in one spot, so it doesn't really lend itself to individual fencing. As mentioned, there already are some "poor" grasslands, which should be easy to nurture back to health with a simple fertilizer application - it's the patchy areas (particularly on the canyon slopes, aka the hardest places to fence :Þ ) that have been basically reduced to gravel pans that need restoration the most.

I don't know about dog laws. I would assume that it would be highly illegal for someone to shoot your dog on your own land because their sheep have intruded into and are grazing your land. But if your dog was off your land and on theirs, I wouldn't be surprised if that were legal to shoot it :Þ. Either way, there would be conversations with the neighbors, including but not limited to offering compensation for any injured sheep if the neighbors promise not to hurt the dog ;)

it is not a difficult problem in theory. fence it and plant something that does not mind poor soil. over time you will be able to plant more demanding species for higher bio-mass. but in practice no fence no way. if you were in a warmer climate, sesame is a powerful cover crop for hot climates that grazing animals will not touch (so all the sesame components goes into bio-mass), but I am unaware of such things for cold climates.

Could you build a dam at the end of your canyon? At least, it will hold soil and rocks and possibly water . May be in a year or so you will have a pond with natural habitat and a barrier for sheep. If not, the canyon will start to fill up itself.

Do you have some kind of wolves there?

I just Googled 'restoring habitat in Iceland' and found quite a lot of articles. There seems to be a huge amount of study and experience in the country which I'm sure you could access. I am imaging that you are trying to restore this land to a natural state rather than garden it or farm it, so I'm not convinced cover crops have a place, other than native species. It seems to me that the number one priority is keeping the sheep out. If that isn't done anything which tries to grow will be eaten off in no time. Just my random opinion but I'd be concentrating on the easier areas first to form reservoirs of species and worrying about the difficult places later. Is gorse native in Iceland? They don't eat that if it is protected when very young.

Okay, avgusta's comment made me laugh :) First off, the concept of damming up my canyon (hydroelectric dam? Should I go into the power business?) and secondly of introducing wolves to Iceland to kill the neighbors' sheep. I can just imagine the application with Matvælastofnun. "Importing: Pack of unusually aggressive arctic wolves (five male, five female). Objective: Unleashing them into the wilderness, to skulk around in the mountains and slaughter farmers' sheep. Will make initial release at Úlfarsfell (Wolf Hill), so that the name takes on a new meaning to hikers. Other Notes: Will import other pestilences in the future, one species at a time. Snow leopards next." ;)

No, gorse (Hvinviður) is not native. I imagine that you have to plant each plant individually anyway

I think my best option is just to keep doing what I'm doing. Keep the fencing in as best shape as I can, knowing that it will never be good enough for perfection, and keeping on chasing out the sheep each time I arrive and they're there ;) And keeping on with a sparse fertilizer application on the depleted areas to help the little bit that's there get a foothold. And to keep planting trees and shrubs that sheep won't eat, even though that's a very slow process, to try to get some shelter from the wind (unfortunately, some of the most wind-hardy plants - birches and willows - are popular sheep treats, I have to use (super-slow-growing) rowan, evergreens that have high death rate when young, etc)

I see two problems you have to solve. grazing ruminants that will eat anything down to the roots (just about), and some wind that seriously blows.

Do you know average precipitation? Reason I ask, 20 inches is kinda a dividing line. more than 20, good.

You've got a lot of reading in front of you. A good bit of it is going to be contradictory, and a good bit is going to leave wondering, exactly how does that relate? Honestly, from how you describe what you are trying to do, you're going to be looking at the books I generally leave alone...so, sorry, not much help there.

And yeah, I've fenced it. I've welded disc blades onto the bottom of posts to keep them from sinking into the ground, carrying the wire with. I've put one in vertical, and then one or two angled to support the vertical, keeping it that way. And I've built fences where every post was carried in one at a time, up the side of cliffs. Great way to get into shape. Will agree it's not easy.

What you're trying to do, in my experience, seems to go one of two ways...either you have massive resources to drop into this (money, to bring material in...even if you get it free, you got to haul it, equipment to spread, and the like) or it takes time. The advantage of time is it's harder to screw things up (many well intended projects wind up having adverse outcomes, for a range of reasons) and easier to tweak.

best of luck.

The only way to truly fix overgrazed land is to remove the grazers. And if sheep owners are not required to fence them onto their property, you'll have to fence them out of yours.

Do what you can for the erosion, make the rock contouring lines, and

Possible means of partial protection - the highway departments in the western USA are using "riprap" (largish broken rocks) to keep elk and deer from using certain road crossings and direct them to safer places. Like any hooved creature, they HATE the insecure footing of the
rock-covered areas and drift along the edges until they find an easier
path.

The barrier needs to be wider then the target species can jump, and a foot or so deep in rocks. For us, that's a band of rock 6 to 8 feet wide and about a foot high. Sheep don't jump as well as elk,

Look at your property on Google maps and see where the obvious sheep paths are, and where you can put this kind of barrier (you have rocks for free) to direct them away from your land. Use the steep sides of the eroded areas as walls and the rock barriers in other places.

The landscape of Iceland is an interesting reminder that desertification isn't just the result of inadequate rainfall. Often it is the result of what rainfall there is failing to stick around in the landscape, thus the term "wet desert."

By coincidence, this article just appeared in the New York Times. Spectacular photos. It also highlights the fact that reforestation efforts in Iceland have been going on for 150 years or more, and are painfully slow to take hold, even with full governmental efforts at landscape scale.

https://nyti.ms/2zoWZPI

Very interesting problem! But floral_uk is right, this is way beyond the expertise of this gardening forum.

I have to wonder if himalayan bamboo, particularly phyllostachys nuda, would not fit the bill of a high bio-mass, restoration plant which is not too sensitive to sheep, similar to sesame discussed above. It grows in Michigan where winters are colder, and its high fat residue builds humus fast. The problem would be whether it grows in the mild Icelandic summer temperatures.

Do you know average precipitation? Reason I ask, 20 inches is kinda a dividing line. more than 20, good.

70 inches. A "wet desert" is a good description for the eroding / depleted areas.

I've welded disc blades onto the bottom of posts to keep them from sinking into the ground

Can't drive a fence into rock. Picture small material atop later material atop larger material and so forth down to bedrock, with any layer capable of sliding, and constant trickling water lubricating it. Really, concrete is the only way to secure posts to it. I haven't taken things that far yet... I gave up after the third collapse and haven't gotten back to it since.

I've put one in vertical, and then one or two angled to support the vertical, keeping it that way.

On my windbreak (made of shipping pallets), every single pallet is like that. Had to rebuild the whole thing after a single storm managed to rip the the whole thing down; the new version has only had a few short segments taken out. The hope is that I'll manage to get something to grow near it before the supports (untreated, salvaged timber) rot out. We'll see...

either you have massive resources to drop into this (money, to bring material in...even if you get it free, you got to haul it, equipment to spread, and the like) or it takes time

The latter ;)

the highway departments in the western USA are using "riprap" (largish broken rocks) to keep elk and deer from using certain road crossings and direct them to safer places. Like any hooved creature, they HATE the insecure footing

Unlike deer, sheep are mountain animals. They spend their whole lives here roaming the mountains (free range) and are perfectly at home on cliffs. Not mountain goat-level agility, but rocks don't scare them.

I have to wonder if himalayan bamboo, particularly phyllostachys nuda, would not fit the bill of a high bio-mass, restoration plant which is not too sensitive to sheep, similar to sesame discussed above.

As strange as this suggestion is and as contradictory toward what I'm trying to do as it sounds (avoiding aggressive foreign species)... it's actually not a totally crazy idea. It can't be too invasive to the country as a whole because it doesn't spread by seeds, so birds can't carry it around as they did things like lupine and chervil. Its growth rates and maximum sizes appear to be rather limited in cold climates, so not as aggressive. It can't tolerate standing water, so it'd be naturally fenced in by bogs. Apparently sheep *do* enjoy grazing it, which would actually be a good thing (once I can manage to keep them off my land) in that it means if I ever wanted to have it "grazed back" I could. It's supposedly wind tolerant (although I think Icelandic winds would give them a test they're not used to!) and excellent at anchoring slopes. Oh, and the shoots are edible.

That wouldn't be a short-term plan, but I might try a patch of it out in the future, assuming Matvælastöfnun doesn't object to such an import. It might be good for particularly problematic areas.

Really not a good idea to introduce an alien species like bamboo, even if would grow. If it did turn out to be successful it could just end up being an invasive problemlike the rhododendron scourge in UK uplands.Karen's aim is to restore and reestablish natives.

I'm interested to see the Icelandic name for gorse. Similar to Whin which is a vernacular name in the British Isles.

Is my post above not visible? I mentioned the name for gorse:

"No, gorse (Hvinviður) is not native. I imagine that you have to plant each plant individually anyway"

I have concerns that some of my posts may not be showing up, as I didn't see that post when I viewed from a different browser (yet I see it here!) :(

If you cannot fence your land, you can for sure put every young tree in a "cage". Sheep won't be able to chew thru wires. It will let them grow .

I'm not sure if you realize how much money and work you're talking about concerning having a cage around each tree on 8 hectares of land. That said, I have been considering PVC pipe segments for when they're very small seedlings, something that I could just push into the ground around the tree and costs almost nothing (both to protect from sheep and wind). I'd have to remove them a couple years later, of course, or they'd strangle the tree, and the tree would have to survive on its own unprotected after that.

well, if the soil is not restored, not much of anything will grow. Bamboo can be always terminated. It is a succession plant after all, and will, in many natural situations, yield to woody plants. Something green is always better than something barren.

I cannot agree with your final sentence. Huge damage can be done by that philosophy. It's just as easy to use suitable vegetation than an unsuitable and a long term ecological mess caused by innocently introduced invasive species can be avoided. Iceland has plenty of appropriate species which will reestablish if only the grazers can be excluded. Succession will happen if given a chance.

it has not happened since the Vikings held that place, though.

The Vikings grazed sheep and cut down the existing trees and people have been doing it ever since, hence desertification. Keep out the sheep and stop deforestation and the land will start to recover. You can't simply introduce a completely alien crop just because it is green matter. The USA is host to numerous alien invasives as a result of such thinking. Check out Arundo donax, introduced for erosion control. As well as being potentially ecologically disastrous it is unnecessary, as the successful greening of coal tips, land fills, slag heaps and industrial sites proves. It can be done with local species.

the crux of the matter is that he or she is unable to do it in the current conditions. I am familiar enough with electric fences to know that they are indeed not good with sheep. so how do you exclude them?

I have a question:" What do those sheep eat after they have eaten everything around if all that green matter has not regrow yet?"

they keep on grazing until grass gets exhausted and dies. then you have a desert.

It's not like they've killed all vegetation in the country. They've just overgrazed specific places - particularly slopes, and higher altitude areas that have slower growth rates.

The problem is that while technically an overgrown place will likely "eventually" regrow on its own, the timescales can be extremely long. And meanwhile the land erodes, ceases storing carbon, provides little habitat value, etc.

And why do they go to a desert ? May be , if it is a desert already , should you try to grow a "camel prickle bush"? May be they leave alone that one?

It is neither dry nor warm here.

I know you already commented about wolves, but I 've watch a short video about how amazingly the Yellow stone park was revived after they reintroduce 14 wolves in that area . Vegetation, animals, birds had come back, erosion stopped, rivers banks changed etc.

I don't know should the guarding dogs be considerate as alien species for Iceland, but I think a couple of serious dogs will do the restoration job for that property.

Ed: just realized that I misunderstood floral_uk's post from a few days ago:

"I'm interested to see the Icelandic name for gorse. Similar to Whin which is a vernacular name in the British Isles."

I took that as "I would be interested to see..." rather than "I find it interesting that...". You're spot on - while "hv" is pronounced "kv", it's analogous to the English "wh" - for example "hval" (whale), "hvað" (what), "hvar" (where), "hveiti" (wheat), "hvítt" (white), "hvolpur" (whelp), etc. So "hvinviður" would be anologous to "whin-wood". I don't know if the Icelandic is taken straight from the English "whin" or whether it has an Icelandic etymology (such as "hvinur" (whisling sound), "hvinn" (uncommon word for thief), etc; I'd guess the former.

I'm pretty sure the etymology would be the other way around. The English coming from Scandinavian roots.