Skógræktarritið - 15.10.2005, Side 94

Roddickton viljum við þakka fyrir
sérlega góðar móttökur, sérstak-
lega Ray Osmond hjá Mount
Pearl og Ray Norman, bæjar-
stjóra Roddickton. Einnig er
okkur ljúft og skylt að þakka
bílstjórunum sem voru með
okkur, þeim Stacey og Ebenezer,
en bangsinn hans Ebenezers
verður a.m.k. einum greinar-
höfundi minnisstæður. Öðrum
gestgjöfum á Nýfundnalandi eru
að sjálfsögðu einnig færðar kærar
þakkir. Síðast en ekki síst er
Kristjáni Baldurssyni og öðrum
hjá Hópferðamiðstöðinni-
Vestfjarðaleið færðar þakkir.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
An Icelandic tour of
Newfoundland
In August of this year, a group of
86 Icelanders (foresters, forest
farmers and other forest
enthusiasts) went on a two-week
tour of the island of Newfound-
land under the guidance of Dr.
Alexander Robertson, a natural
scientist and a great "friend of
Iceland" of long standing. The
trip provided a first-rate overview
of forests and forest mana-
gement in Newfoundland, as well
as interesting insights into the
nature and culture of an island,
which in many ways resembles
Iceland. This article provides a
brief overview of the general
characteristics of Newfoundland
(geology and landscape, climate,
economy, demography, history),
as well as a very brief description
of the trip itself. Numerous
places and sites were visited
during the trip, too many to deal
with in an article of this length,
but in general the visits covered
the various aspects of forest
management in Newfoundland
(e.g. logging, reforestation, and
tree nurseries), as well as sites of
general natural and historical
interest. The article's coverage
focuses on three of the places
visited during the trip. The first is
the city of St. lohn’s and its
surroundings, but St. lohn's is
the largest city in Newfoundland
and both the starting and end
point in Newfoundland for this
trip. The other two places are
L'Anse aux Meadows National
Historic Site and Gros Morne
National Park, both of which are
on the UNESCO World Heritage
List. L’Anse aux Meadows is of
particular interest to Icelanders,
as it is the only site in North
America where remnants of the
travel of Viking explorers have
been discovered, but the
Icelandic Sagas contain tales of
these explorations. The main
attraction of Gros Morne
National Park is the unique
geology and landscape in the
park, as the area is considered a
textbook example of the theory
of continental drift, but the park
also has an interesting mix of
plant species and wildlife.
íslensftu ferðalangarnir daginn fyrir heimför, íSir Robert Bond Park íWhitbourne. Mynd: EG.
92
SKÓGRÆKTARRITIÐ 2005