It's too windy for trees there, similarly to large parts of Iceland. People could probably plant trees that are not high - I don't know what species will feel good in this climate though.
It's too windy for trees there, similarly to large parts of Iceland. People could probably plant trees that are not high - I don't know what species will feel good in this climate though.
Both the Faroes and Iceland had trees before the vikings arrived and deforested the land, with birch being the most predominant species. But yeah, the wind makes it hard to bring a forest back once it's gone. The rewilding youtube channel Mossy Earth just released a video a couple days ago on their efforts to bring back some birch forests in Iceland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-pT56a5ZUc
Was it just for fuel? I don't imagine birch being sufficiently large for shipbuilding. Were there larger diameter trees?
Fuel and settlement activity (shelter, fencing, farmland, etc), I don't think there would have been much wood worthy of shipbuilding, at least compared to their traditional ships.
While I was there I did some search around and it seems that the wind, weather and soil is just part of it. The largest reason is sheep. They'll eat any tree before it has any chance of growing. So you get naturally sparse growth already, add the sheep, you get grass everywhere. Which makes everywhere very walkable and surreal at the same time. Plenty of trees on cities and gardens.
There are a few sheltered spots on the islands with manmade 'forests' like Kunoy Park.
It is not the wind, it is the sheep which eat the trees before the grow big. Trees grow in some gardens and parks, so it is possible.