Skógrækt ríkisins | Thórsmörk Trail Volunteers

Aug 29

To our volunteers…

As the summer comes to an end, most of our volunteers completed their placements and headed home today. Despite a cold and late start, our third season has been very successful with trail repair projects completed on sites from Morinsheiði to Hvanngil.

We would like to thank everyone who worked with our teams on the trails this summer. We hope that you have good memories of Thórsmörk and that you enjoyed your time with us working on the mountains and living in the forest. Thank you all for your hard work, support and friendship.

It is now time for us to take down the tents and pack the tools…. but maybe just one more campfire before we finish.

See you next season!

Jun 27

Training week at Langidalur

Each season, we begin with a week of induction and training for our Operations Team volunteers. The aim is to prepare them for their role which includes leading the teams, organizing our camps and the day management of the programme.

Tony Newby returned to Langidalur to run the training week for our 6 Operations Team volunteers (From UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand). The week focused on team leadership skills, safety planning and practical skills training… with a few group exercises and games involving blindfolds thrown in.

A big thank you to Tony for a great week!

May 15

Back in business… with this season’s first volunteer team at Langidalur

Preparing for a day of challenging weather…

May 8

Our third birthday!

Preparation work at the volunteer camp stopped briefly on Thursday, so that we could celebrate the volunteer programme’s third birthday with chocolate cake and coffee (a welcome break from working on the roof of the volunteer hut in freezing cold temperatures).

Established by the Icelandic Forest Service (Skógrækt ríkisins) in 2012 as a pilot project, the programme now recruits, trains and leads volunteers on trail maintenance and nature conservation projects throughout Thórsmörk, Goðaland and beyond. In 2014, over 240 weeks of volunteer work were completed.

We would like to thank our volunteers and friends for all their hard work and support over these three amazing years.

(The cake was extremely good…)

Apr 27

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Reykjavík calling… (Skype days for our volunteers)

We are on our way to Langidalur later this week, but before we go we have set aside the next two days to help our teams with their summer planning and preparations.

The teams are now all registered and we would like to invite our volunteers to get in touch with their last minute questions. This can include any questions, concerns or advice needed about any aspect of the placements. This might be about your equipment, tent, camp facilities, travel plans or literally anything else. We will be available on Skype from 09:00 – 21:00 (GMT) throughout Tuesday (tomorrow) and Wednesday. All questions are welcome!

Of course, it is possible to get in touch with us at any time, but once we move up to Thórsmörk and the practical projects get underway, communication can become more complicated. To avoid possible delays, we recommend using this opportunity over the next two days before we set off.

It would be very nice to hear from you. Simply find us on skype during the next two days…