Trudging through the bush
June 26, 2015 10:17 am Leave your thoughts
Well another two weeks have flown by and here I am sitting at my computer trying to recall all that I have accomplished in what seems like a mere matter of days. As I noted in my last blog, this summer internship is passing by in a blink of an eye and I can hardly believe it’s nearly July. A part of me is enjoying the fact that working and being here in Saskatchewan means the days do not drag by, but a huge part of me is dreading the thought of heading back to school. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy going to university and enhancing my knowledge but I find myself to be a much happier and relaxed person when I am working – especially when I truly enjoy the people and company I work with.
The past few weeks have included a lot of walking/hiking for marking road layouts and buffers for future cuts. For these projects we are given maps of cut blocks that indicate in-block roads and/or block edges or stream buffers in which need to be ribboned off. This particular type of work includes a lot of compassing and mapping in order to provide our superiors with accurately ribboned work. Fortunately I have been blessed with a mild bug year, which makes being out in the bush incredibly nice, although in some areas the understory hazel brush can leave me struggling. Standing at a height of 5’3” I often am below the understory hazel brush, just barely able to see a few feet in front of me. This obstacle has forced me to develop a very “scientifically” complex method in which I travel though the bush. From a distance it can be compared to the common stroke in swimming often referred to the breaststroke as I push the branches out of my way and step over the sticks, trees and logs. Usually I can get going pretty quickly while using this method, but certain dead fall and logs can create some difficulties. By far the worst part of this particular method is when the tiniest branch is let go and comes back to literally whip you in the face – trust me when I say, getting whipped across the lip or neck can be painful enough to make you want to rip/break the branch to make it also feel pain. As much as I jokingly complain about this particular matter, it’s a very minor thing and doesn’t truly affect the happiness I feel to be outside hiking/working all day.
With all this trudging through the bush, I have luckily had the opportunity to find and see spectacular things which makes this job that much more enjoyable. Currently I have developed a small collection of antlers and skulls as well as had the opportunity to see many forms of wildlife. Even after the amount of deer, elk, moose and black bears I have seen, I still get excited when we come across more. A few days ago while hiking and laying out a 15m buffer around a creek, I heard a baby black bear call for its mother not too far away. Of course being the chicken I am, I called out to Logan (who was 15m away from me following the creek as I buffered) to ensure we were okay to continue. As my heart slightly began to pound harder and we continued walking, I could see something up in the distance moving. As I hid behind a tree trying to figure out what this brown object was, Logan walked out within meters from it not even noticing it moving. I yelled out to him when I decided it must be an ungulate, which in turn resulted in scaring off what was actually two elk. As much as I love wild animals and the idea of seeing them up close and in person, I could do without being that close if it had been a moose or a bear.
Today might have been by far one of my favourite days, as I worked alongside Amber and the contracted tree planters on what is referred to as Green bush 200. Planting today required the use of a helicopter (which is always fun) in order to plant areas in which transportation is difficult. I, alongside Logan and Amber, assisted in setting the long lining nets and loading them with the necessary boxes of trees. My brother is a helicopter pilot and has been doing long lining for a number of years so I have had the opportunity to see this, but I have never had the opportunity to be involved or assist in latching and unlatching the nets. So today when asked if I wanted to learn how to long line, I jumped at the opportunity. The pilot was extremely kind and walked us through the process so that we could attach the last few loads. When the time came, the pilot flew with the empty net towards me which allowed me too unlatch and release the empty net in order to latch to the full load to be taken out. As simple as this was, I was really excited to be involved and to show my family (especially my brother) what I had done.
Weyerhaeuser has provided me with so many various opportunities and experiences that have extremely pleased me and made me truly enjoy the work I am involved in. As always, I am excited to see what the rest of the summer has in store for me and I am excited to share it for my friends, family and others to see through this blog!
