The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-08-24
ICELAND FOREST CHIEF HERE FOR
 ALASKA STUDIES
Island Country Is Finding Seed Source in North-
 land Territory

Following a trial blazed by his grandfather in 1875-but with dif- ferent end in view-Hakon Bjarna- son, Chief of the State Forestry Ser vice of Iceland. arrived in Juneau yesterday afternoon. Forty flying i hours brought the forest specialist here from his native island common wealth in the North Atlantic.
 Forester Bjarnason's purpose in coming to Alaska is to study forest growth, principally in the Prince Williams Sound and Kenai Penin- sula regions, where climatic condi- tions are most nearly like those of his isolated land. He expects to remain in Alaska until midOctober and will spend the next week in Juneau on research. He will view Southeast Alaska forest areas on a trip to Sitka next week.
 The Icelandic government is en- deavoring to establish forest growth in the southern coastal regions of the country, sufficient to care for domestic needs. MT. Bjarnason pointed out that it was 10 to 12 thousand years ago that his coun- try was glaciated over during the last ice age. In the relatively short period since the ice retreat, natural seeding of the isolated island has necessarily been limited.
 Iceland now has some natural for est areas of larch, birch, mountain ash and willows. The birch forests in particular, he said, have been fos- tered by his predecessors at the for estry helm, until they now make a good showing. His service is now trying to establish coniferous varie- ties from imported seed. He is es- pecially interested in Sitka spruce and hemlock seed from Alaska. It was in 1885 that Iceland first opened correspondence with the Alaska Forest Service and since then some seed has reached his country from the Cordova and Kenai Lake sectors. Though that seed has been in Iceland soil only a few years, all ready it has proved superior to seed obtained from areas of northern Europe and Siberia. It is even bet- ter than seed of Alaska origin that in 1887 was obtained from Norway. The Alaska via Norway seed has produced trees now about 12 feet high, but much better results are expected from seed obtained from properly selected Alaska localities. ' Besides studying the native cordi- tions of Alaska forest growth, MT. T Bjarnason will select areas most similar to his land He will try to arrange with inhabitants of those areas to send a continuous supply of that seed to Iceland. He declar.-- ed that the Alaska Forest Service, particularly Regional Forester B. Frank Heintzleman, former Assis- tant Regional Forester Weilman Hol- brook, and supervisors at Cordova have already been most helpful to his country Iceland now has mulch larger nurseries and can go into tree culture on a more extensive scale, which prompted the Iceland govern ment to send MT. Bjarnason to Alaska. He believes that Alaska is perhaps the only place in the world except perhaps South America where conditions the same as Ice lands can be found and where for ests are now thriving.
 MT Bjarnason obtained his for estry training in Copenhagen, as Iceland has no forestry college. He has been connected with the Ice land Forest Service for 12 years now That service is very limited, he said
 comprising but five men in all. Oth- CT Iceland students are now study ing forestry abroad. One of them, Vigfus Jakobsson. he expects to meet