Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork with ecologists, foresters, conservationists, volunteers, and members of the public, this paper explores human imaginations, scientific expertise, and practices on the ground involved in the deliberate re-makings of Icelandic environments, centered on the plant the Alaska lupin.

Paper long abstract:

Iceland is often said to be the most ecologically devastated country in Europe, with 90% of forests and 40% of surface soil lost since human settlement in the ninth century. Still, with the oldest soil conservation service in the world, and over 110 years of restoration measures, it is an example of a collaborative human effort to return environments to their 'natural' state. In 1945, a spoonful of seeds of Lupinus nootkatensis, a perennial legume with nitrogen-fixing qualities, were brought to Iceland from Alaska, specifically for the purpose of revegetating Iceland's vast barren areas. The lupin was used within large-scale revegetation and afforestation projects, and the public was actively encouraged to participate in the purposeful re-shaping of Icelandic environments. Today, the lupin is officially considered an 'alien invasive species' in Iceland, and what once was a uniform belief in the 'miracle plant' has given way to a complex debate over its (un-)rightful place in the country. Large-scale eradication projects of the plant now envision another, and more 'wild' future for Icelandic landscapes by way of careful planning and tending. Based on fieldwork with restorationists, ecologists, foresters, conservationists, volunteers, and members of the public, this paper explores human imaginations, scientific expertise, and practices on the ground involved in the deliberate re-makings of Icelandic environments. We place these efforts in the context of enduring and powerful cultural narratives of a 'moment' of origin and a desire to return to that origin while imagining a bright future for the nation and its country.