The Planter Life
June 22, 2015 12:00 pm Leave your thoughts
When people hear the term tree planters one could assume that they are dirty, smelly, hippies but honestly they are the hardest workers I know. (Well they may be a little dirty) In my own opinion tree planters are Olympians; actually, they may even be better. Sure Olympians are hard-core athletes and can run longer and faster than any average Joe, but their races or competitions only last for a few hours at best. Tree Planters are planting twelve hours a day for the entire summer.
My tree planting experience was planting one hundred trees for a class at school, needless to say that those were the hardest/worst/longest five hours of my life. I definitely gained respect for all the hard work that they do, because I know for sure that I could not do that job!
The Spring Camp we have set up this year is just North of Slave Lake. It is an isolation (ISO) camp meaning that none of the tree planters leave the camp for the whole three to four weeks. (Until they are finished panting all the cut blocks) The planting company had 20 something planters that planted about fifty to sixty thousand saplings a day. Could you imagine sleeping in a tent for that long, planting thousands of trees a day, plus having to work 12 hours a day…? I couldn’t! It definitely takes a special kind of person. The part I think is so cool about this job is that you don’t have to be a certain size, shape, or even gender. It is all up to the person how many trees you plant. And another cool part about this job is that the planters travel from all over Canada to come plant; there were people from Quebec, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, etc.
Experiencing first hand how incredible/crazy I think they are, I decided to ask some of the planters a few questions about their job such as…
- What got you in to Tree Planting?
- What do you like about it?
- What is the most trees you’ve planted in a day?
- How many years have you been planting?
- Where are you from?
Cal
Cal, is the owner of the tree company we hired for the spring plant this year. I was so impressed of how involved he was with his employees, his generosity & kindness, and of course his amazing staff. (The cooks he hires could honestly be 5 star chefs!)
What got you in to Tree Planting? “Sounded like a lucrative summer job”
What do you like about it? “You can decide how hard you want to work…essentially you are your own boss”
What is the most trees you’ve planted in a day? “2800 trees”
How many years have you been planting? “Planted 3.5 summers & supervised/boss for 20ish years”
Where are you from? “Rosalind, BC”
Maxim
What got you in to Tree Planting? Being outside.
What do you like about it? It’s a nice change of lifestyle. Its relaxing and therapeutic!
What is the most trees you’ve planted in a day? 1800.
How many years have you been planting? This is my first year.
Where are you from? Slave Lake, AB
Sam
What got you in to Tree Planting? I was broke from traveling, and I got in by accident.
What do you like about it? Being outside and the people
What is the most trees you’ve planted in a day? 7100
How many years have you been planting? 5 Years
Where are you from? Saskatoon, SK
Rebecca
What got you in to Tree Planting? A friend
What do you like about it? A great company with great people, lots of money to be made if you are good, emotional rollercoaster… it could be your very worst and best day at the same time.
What is the most trees you’ve planted in a day? 2000
How many years have you been planting? “This is my second year”
Where are you from? Vancouver