Helicopter Tree Planting

July 7, 2015 10:02 am Published by Joe Silva 1 Comment

Hey everybody! Well, it has been a whirlwind the past few weeks and the spring tree plant is in full swing. This past week, the tree planters focused their efforts on an area that required a helicopter to access the cutblocks. This area was harvested over two winters and now the roads are unpassable, so to speed things up, a helicopter ferried trees, planters and yours truly from a staging area on a nearby wellsite down into the cutblocks. After a safety talk with the pilot, we loaded our gear into the cargo hold of the small aircraft and fastened ourselves into our seats. The pilot then fired up the engines and off we were! It is amazing how manoeuvrable those machines are!

The views of the surrounding landscape were incredible to say the least! We could talk to the pilot using our headsets and tell him which pre-determined point we wanted to be dropped at. He would then set down on a flat piece of land close to the site, and we would disembark, grabbing our gear and kneeling down in front of the helicopter as he took off straight overhead. Talk about an adrenaline rush! Needless to say, flying to work in a helicopter is a very cool way to commute! Throughout the rest of the spring, we completed one other plant that required a helicopter to fly trees into the cut block and I got to load slings on to the helicopter’s long line, signalling him to lift and making sure the load didn’t shift. In addition to the helicopter plant, my co-worker and I discovered the remains of an old trapper’s cabin where we were working. I have also come across a deer skull, large glacial erratics and petrified wood during my rambles through the bush at work. It has been very interesting getting the opportunity to work in the outdoors every day and see so many different things such as these.

I have also helped out at West Fraser’s seed orchard over the past couple of weeks. Emily is the summer student who is working at the orchard full time this year, conducting research, performing property maintenance and acting as the general site MacGyver. I’ve helped with various tasks at the orchard including calibrating the irrigation system and counting cones- yes we counted pine cones! The trees in the seed orchard are grown for their cones. Come fall, the cones are harvested and sent to a facility in British Columbia that extracts the seeds. Next they are shipped to an orchard and planted, grown into the seedlings that are eventually shipped back to Hinton and planted on the forest management area. It’s a long process, but it goes a long way to ensuring the future health of the forest where West Fraser operates. Another project that I have been tasked with is NSR (not satisfactorily restocked) surveys.

Each year, West Fraser’s silvicultutre foresters fly in a helicopter over cutblocks that are in the process of being reforested. For the first 14 years after harvest, West Fraser has to meet certain guidelines to ensure that the forest returns to a healthy state. As you can imagine, sometimes it is very difficult for the foresters to tell for sure from the air if a particular cutblock is doing well or not. That’s where I come in. So armed with a block map and a plot cord, I strike out and ground-truth the foresters’ results to decide once and for all if a cut block needs additional attention to pass the legislated surveys. I do this by walking through the cutblock and recording the number, species and height of trees I find in my plots. I then do some calculations and send my findings to the foresters. There are a lot of potential factors that can disrupt the re-establishment of a stand after harvest- drought, hailstorms and competition from aspen or grass are just some to mention. As such, it makes sense that West Fraser directs so much energy to ensuring that planted areas grow back to their full potential. I’ve really been enjoying work the past couple of weeks- every day is different!

I look forward to the adventures still to come!