On the 4th day of the Norwegian Seed Savers weekend (6th May 2019), the traditional spring walk along the Homla river and canyon was on the programme with the hope to find ostrich ferns at the right stage to pick. In the cooler parts near the river, it was too early and too late away from the river. Nevertheless, everyone who wanted to picked a few fiddleheads!
It was as usual a magical walk which took some of us 8 hours to complete….as there was so much to see and enjoy!
Thanks to all the participants who also provided pictures: Berit Børte (third time participant), new steering commitee member Bernhard Askedalen, Elin Mar (from Røst), Inger Line Skurdal Ødegård, Meg Anderson and Tina Lambert!
Pictures from Saturday’s 5 km (almost 4 hours with all the stops) walk along the Homla river canyon from Storfossen (this area’s second highest waterfall) to the sea at Hommelvik! As usual, a memorable trip!
As part of Trondheim’s climate festival, which runs all this week, Naturvernforbundet (Friends of the Earth Norway) arranged a tour to experience first-hand a couple of remnants of old forest in Malvik! We learned more about the need to preserve more old forest in Norway, to extend the size of existing reserves and the importance to change the way we manage the forest as soon as possible to bind as much carbon as possible! Today’s clearfelling practices need to be changed to more ecologically sound methods.
We learned how to spot old forest remnants from afar, that about 80% of the carbon is below ground level and that only about 3% of the forest in Norway is over 160 years old, although the amount of old forest is now on the rise. We also visited Storfossen on the Homla river and talked about the spray zone around the waterfall where several rare lichens and mosses can be found. The forest along the river in this dramatic canyon-like landscape was finally protected by law last year: http://malviknytt.no/2015/12/11/homla-naturreservat-vernet-i-dag
It was a very interesting day thanks in particular to biologist Arnodd Håpnes from Naturvernforbundet in Oslo who lectured and asked questions from the well attended tour participants together with Martin Stuevold from the local group who are pushing the plans for protecting the forest locally and also Jan Erik Andersen from Fylkesmannen who also informed about the complicated process of trying to protect more forest…
As usual, the highlight of these weekends is the incredible walk along the river Homla just 20 minutes from home with large quantities of Ostrich Fern along the way, truly one of Norway’s most beautiful plants and also most delicious!!
Basidioradulum radula (Tannsopp), earlier classified with the Hedgehog fungi!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden