Try doing that in Iceland. They’re both very aware and conflicted about invasive species up there. Lupin is invasive and covering the country and also building soil from nothing, Pine trees are invasive and the quickest way to get treecover that is desperately needed.
Makes for weird discussions, I guess Iceland is such and extreme case that nobody really knows if they should be saving the ecosystem it had managed to scratch together before we turned up or if they should be trying to rush a healthier ecosystem with imports (Iceland was pretty thin and fragile even before humans and we wrecked what little there was)
In California, we have Tumbleweed, and it’s actually really useful for stabilizing/fertilizing loose, disturbed soils and making shelter for native grasses and plants to start growing near. They also love to fuck with cars by jumping out in front of them at every opportunity.
In California they are a danger to the environment. They can spread fires quicker and spread it to different areas. No bueno.
The California Invasive Plant Council found that Tumbleweeds had no meaningful impact on wildfire risk one way or the other.
Are there many species there that are specific to Iceland which would be harmed by lupines and pines taking over?
If it’s most an amalgamation of stuff that commonly found elsewhere I think it would be fine.
If pine seeds came to Iceland on the wind 100 years before humans got there it would have been considered native. Most the seeds of all the other stuff got there the same way I imagine, unless they’ve been isolated since the island split from a continent somewhere.
