My First Week in Alberta
May 23, 2014 9:16 am Leave your thoughts
Hi I’m Brooke and I will be completing my Green Dream internship with Weyerhaeuser Timberlands in Grande Prairie, Alberta. It’s hard to believe I’m already headed into week 2 up here; everything’s been a whirlwind of activity between leaving Ontario and getting settled up here in Alberta. Flying on my own was a new experience in itself on top of moving to a location where you literally know no one. So far everyone I’ve met has been extremely helpful my boss even gave up her Sunday afternoon to pick me up from the airport and help me get settled at the college residence. More importantly Weyerhaeuser in general has been so accommodating. Jesse, the other intern I’ll be working with, and I arrived to a decorated office, our own work truck, quads and a ton of excited coworkers.
Our work truck!
The first week was primarily going through safety procedures mixed in with first aid re-certifications and quad training. It was slow going at first but an immediate difference I noticed between Weyerhaeuser’s safety training and previous work places is the attitude of all the co-workers. It’s easy enough for a company to go through the book and rhyme off procedures but the employees here all display genuine concern when it comes to health and safety. I personally feel if any unsafe situation were to arise not only would I feel comfortable enough to talk to my supervisor but really anyone within Weyerhaeuser. One of the first things I heard and that I am constantly being reminded of is that nothing you do at work is ever worth getting hurt for. Which is a very important lesson to remember in any workplace.
With that being said week 2 involved Jesse and I completing most of our training, and moving on to fieldwork. For the majority of this summer we will be working on Weyerhaeuser’s reforestation project. We have 9 million trees to plant by the end of summer, with the help of Outland’s tree planters whom we complete quality checks on. This week has been mainly the two of us learning the ropes of tree planting and the different signs of a poorly planted seedling. A few signs to watch out for including seedlings that are too shallow, deep, close together or poor planting mediums such as extreme wet or dryness. So far I’ve determined tree planters are some of the hardest working people. They are constantly planting and I have yet to see one actually sit down and eat lunch. It’s only their first week and they’ve already planted over 200 000 trees and closed a block. Which means next week were onto a new block that I found out can only be accessed by helicopter! I’ve personally never been in a helicopter before so it is something I am definitely looking forward to. I’ll try to get some cool pictures for my next blog!
One of the future blocks that will be planted later in the summer.
Cheers,
Brooke