This is the first summertime i have not
worked as a treeplanter in six years.
You got a shovel and some bags that go around your hips that you
fill with trees, maybe two hundred to four hundred depending on
how big they are. You get paid by the tree.
(Canadian money) The most I've ever planted was 4700 pine trees
in a day. At 9.5 cents a tree. This was just barely a four hundred dollar
day but not really...you minus about 25 dollars each day for camp costs (food etc.) And of course Canada's brutal taxes! My best day for money though was just last year...It was a fill plant ( a clear cut that has already been
planted but survival rate was not high so go in, walk through, and plant spacing your trees off the existing ones.) At 21 cents a tree I planted
2400. $500. It's not as glamourous as it sounds...Both of these days I
mentioned I had to bust my ass! No breaks...maybe an apple on the way
back to my piece after bagging up more trees. I broke my back and my mind.
This is a high paying job if you got the drive.
It also has a community feel to it...flying into a camp
in the middle of nowhere northern b.c. or alberta, absolutly
nowhere, with people from all over the spectrum and then
planting trees!
In the rain (all day, all week, outside in a clear cut in the rain!)
In the snow (all day, all week, outside in a clear cut in the snow!)
In the hail (all day, all week, outside in a clear cut in the hail!)
In the heat (all day, all week, outside in a clear cut in the heat!)
Lots of boozing, lots of smoke!
This job can be physically torturous. At least 10 hour days.
Always six days on, one day off.
I have seen people go insane. Even myself.
Just losing it...the walls come crashing in...and there
is no place to hide...cause you still got to work the next day,
with the same people who saw you freak out the day before.
Glad it's over...I don't want to have to treeplant again.
[This message has been edited by Djinn Raffo (edited 07-17-2001).]