The municipality is named after the old Birkenes farm, since the first Birkenes Church was built there. The first element is birki which means "birch wood" and the last element is nes which means "headland". This farm is located on the south side of what is now the village of Mollestad.
Coat-of-arms
The coat-of-arms is from modern times; they were granted on 5 December 1986. The arms show three birch leaves in white or silver on a green background. The arms are a canting of bjørk which means birch. The green color symbolizes the importance of agriculture in the municipality. The three leaves symbolize the three main areas in the municipality: Birkenes in the south, Herefoss in the northeast, and Vegusdal in the northwest.
The historic parish of Tveit had to be divided into two formannskapsdistrikts on 1 January 1838 because the main part of Tveit belonged to the county of Lister og Mandal and the annex of Birkenæs belonged to the county of Nedenæs and the new law said a municipality could only exist in one county, not two. Therefore, the parish was split and Birkenæs municipality was created in Nedenæs county. On 1 January 1883, an uninhabited part of Birkenes was transferred to the control of neighboring Landvik municipality. Starting in the 1960s, Norway enacted many municipal reforms such as mergers and border adjustments stemming from the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1967, the neighboring municipalities of Herefoss and Vegusdal were merged into the municipality of Birkenes, creating a much larger municipality with a population of 3,050. On 1 January 1970, two uninhabited areas of Neset and Råbudal in the neighboring municipality of Froland were transferred to Birkenes. On 1 January 1979, the uninhabited area of Landheia in Froland was transferred to the control of Birkenes municipality. Later, on 1 January 1986, the Lislevand farm area was transferred from Birkenes to the neighboring municipality of Evje og Hornnes. Then on 1 January 1991, the Dalen area of Birkenes was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Froland. On 1 January 2019, the Hovlandsdalen area was transferred from Birkenes municipality to the neighboring Evje og Hornnes municipality.
The municipal council of Birkenes is made up of 21 representatives that are elected to four year terms. Currently, the party breakdown is as follows:
Economy
Agriculture and logging are important sources of employment, but the municipality also has a small industrial base with about 400 different work sites. The largest enterprise is Owens Corning with approximately 180 employees. Other larger businesses include Uldal Vinduer og Dører, Foss Bad, Scanflex, KOAB Industrier, and Birkeland Trykkeri.
