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Treeplanting

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dbstar
Posts: 2038 - Karma: 20
Getting ready to head out to the bush for another season of sadistic punishment. Anyone here plant?
Apr 5 2011 8:50AM
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Inbred_Redneck
Posts: 2776 - Karma: 28
No, but i do the opposite, cut em down.
Apr 5 2011 9:11AM
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SkreechA
Posts: 78 - Karma: 9
What kind of trees?
Apr 5 2011 9:33AM
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dbstar
Posts: 2038 - Karma: 20
Seeing as how I work for a company which replants trees that have been cut down so that in 40 years they can be cut down again, I could care less....

and we plant spruce and pine for the most part, not weed.
Apr 5 2011 9:51AM
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killabees
Posts: 8558 - Karma: 494
green trees would be kewler
Apr 5 2011 12:28PM
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Kratotalaga
Posts: 347 - Karma: 22
i love trees
Apr 5 2011 12:30PM
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chicken
Posts: 6843 - Karma: 2,123
I'm about to spend my first season in the bush. Not tree-planting, soil sampling.
Apr 5 2011 12:32PM
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Dhane
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 1,722
i plant for christmas tree farms throughout NJ. not really as hardcore as your experience. i was considering doing it up in canada for the summer, but failed to get a work visa and employment and kinda half-assed it so i gave up.
Apr 5 2011 12:34PM
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Inbred_Redneck
Posts: 2776 - Karma: 28
Its alright man, haha i didnt mean anything by it. Do you guys plant seeds or move whole trees with a spade?
Apr 5 2011 12:35PM
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iSmokeweed
Posts: 4793 - Karma: 1,370
this thread is now for 15 year olds talking about weed.
Apr 5 2011 12:36PM
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Anathema
Posts: 21048 - Karma: 5,061
did it one summer and never doing it again. i honestly can't fucking do that kind of monotonous work. shit, sitting at a desk doing data entry would be so much better. planting a tree every 5-10 seconds for 10 hours straight is absolute hell. not to mention the bee stings i got, poison ivy rashes, horsefly bites, cuts and scrapes on my legs, and i even stepped into a giant puddle of mud one day which went halfway up my shin and was a goddamn soggy ass wet foot for the rest of the day. ever have to do physical labor with a wet sock/boot? yeah, blisters galore. oh, even our camp site sucked. northern ontario in may still gets down to freezing during the night and i remember laying in my tent with long johns, a sweater, a jacket, tucked into my sleeping bag and still shivering to death. then we'd have to wake up at 5am to get ready to take a bus for an hour to our plant site. yeahhh what an AWESOME experience.

mother fuck tree planting. i'd rather be a friggin janitor at a night club and have to clean up the stalls where drunk people just piss and puke all over the fucking place..
Apr 5 2011 12:37PM
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chicken
Posts: 6843 - Karma: 2,123
I've got to admit i'm a little bit worried about my first year in the bush. Although we take helicopters instead of schoolbusses and take like 8 samples a day while the rest is hiking. It's all solo work though which could get lonely
Apr 5 2011 1:00PM
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Drail
Posts: 14012 - Karma: 10,010
there are a number of planters floating around NS.

I'm going into my 9th year of planting. got a sweet gig where I work out of home for half the year, the other half I'm only 2 hours north and it's a Mon-Fri gig with our camp right on the lake with a sandy beach and diving board, permanent buildings, and I can go home on weekends.
Apr 5 2011 1:05PM
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geteducated
Posts: 6410 - Karma: 86
you'll meet some interesting characters tree planting.
Apr 5 2011 1:47PM
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Chokolite
Posts: 1050 - Karma: 23
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amidoinitrite?

Apr 5 2011 1:58PM
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RICK_ROSS
Posts: 6983 - Karma: 3,343
i cut my own christmas tree once. so i totally know where your coming from.
Apr 5 2011 2:21PM
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VT_scratch
Posts: 8781 - Karma: 6,213
my cousins been doing it for like 8 years now...

got a degree to be a teacher, said fuck that, and has been planting trees every summer in the middle of nowhere BC so he can shred all winter.

anyone ever come across anything crazy while planting? grizzlies? whack people living in the middle of the woods? grow ops?
Apr 5 2011 2:24PM
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ImNotARacist
Posts: 5136 - Karma: -1,031
ALRIGHT THIS THREAD IS NOW ABOUT SHITTY ASS WORKING EXPERIENCES.


So there is this dumb ass farmer growing grain right. I work for a pivot company and have to replace all the metal drops to plastic ones. Metal U bends that have been on a pivot for 4 years rust. And they are a bitch to get off, plus you are about 12 feet in the air sitting on a 6 inch pipe. That sucked. Then after we replace all of the drop with new ones, which took about 3 days, the dumbass farmer sets his pressure too high and blows all of the ends of. So we double clamp every one of them. Then the same farmer does it AGAIN, at this point the grain is about waist high and the day we went to work on it was the same day it blew. So all the grain is soaking wet and up to our waist. You want to talk about soggy shoes, socks, pants, underwear, shirt.


Then one day we were replacing hose drops and ends in the middle of a lightning storm with it pouring down rain. Heres the picture though. Standing on a metal latter 10 feet in the air leaning next to a metal pivot in the middle of a field, during a lightning storm. Im terrified of lightning in the first place.



Apr 5 2011 2:34PM
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Drail
Posts: 14012 - Karma: 10,010
it's not dedicated, it's just a job.
Apr 5 2011 2:56PM
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Drail
Posts: 14012 - Karma: 10,010
In northern BC I came across a baby moose. We were up at Lowell Cove, Takla Lake... it's 150km north of Vanderhoff on a logging roads... so in other words - middle of nowhere.

It was the first day of work up there, first run of the morning, and as I get close to the treeline I hear an interesting sound but don't really think much about it. As I get to the treeline the sound gets louder so I look up and notice the moose. At first I thought it was a small deer, but after a second look realized it was a really really young baby moose. It tried to come and lick my hand and eventually thought I was it's mom or something and wouldn't leave me alone. After a few hours of it following me and my foreman around it eventually fell asleep against my foreman (after licking him for some time). When it finally fell asleep we slowly got up and walked away. Due to it being so young and smelling like human, it's true parents probably refused to take it back and it either died of starvation or got eaten by some other animal.

That's the best story I have, but I also have a story about a co-worker who got attacked by a bear while we were on the black (he got on CBC radio for that one), a story about our camp being over run by black bears and we had to shoot 6 bears in two weeks (after they ran us out of camp twice), a story about us living on an island in the middle of a big river and having the island erode overnight almost taking a few planters with it. Two years ago we found a grow op by Nanaimo... I have a lot of planting stories.
Apr 5 2011 3:05PM
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CAPITA-DEVOURS
Posts: 1968 - Karma: 4
you should make a new video about neature, but have the growing and planting of it,
Apr 5 2011 3:46PM
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chicken
Posts: 6843 - Karma: 2,123
i'm praying I don't come across a grizzly. I'm not sure what my employers policy is with firearms. In the job description it says rare use of shotguns for bear defense, so I I hope they provide us with shotguns, or at least let us carry our own personal rifles.

A black bear encounter doesn't scare me one bit, but confrontation with a grizzly and cub, unarmed, sends chills up my back. If you anyone says it doesn't scare them, they are lying. I know I wouldn't let my nerves get the best of me and do something stupid, but if the bear started showing agression I would be super fucking glad I had a gun.
Apr 5 2011 6:07PM
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Drail
Posts: 14012 - Karma: 10,010
where are you planting and who with? I've only been with one company who has carried a gun on the block. I'd say 1/2 the time we had a gun on the block with us. that being said, I have never personally had a grizzly bear on my block, and only once have I been part of a camp where there was a grizzly on the block. In all honesty, you shouldn't be too worried about grizzly bears unless you're in serious grizzly territory.
Apr 5 2011 6:59PM
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dbstar
Posts: 2038 - Karma: 20
lol if you need a rifle with you in the bush i suggest looking elsewhere because chances are pretty slim that you will have one with you.
Apr 5 2011 7:41PM
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maximiliaan
Posts: 7711 - Karma: 2,857
STOP IT NUGGET!
Apr 5 2011 7:41PM
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maximiliaan
Posts: 7711 - Karma: 2,857
ok did i just made stealthnuggets thing work.....?
Apr 5 2011 7:42PM
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maximiliaan
Posts: 7711 - Karma: 2,857
:(
Apr 5 2011 7:45PM
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paige.
Posts: 1932 - Karma: 924
I guy I know was planting one summer and a whole bunch of clouds rolled in and a massive thunderstorm rolled in. They all got called in and as he was walking back to camp with the girl who was working near him when the girl got hit by lightening and had to be airlifted out of camp. The next day there was a guy working in the girls spot. Partway through the day my friend heard the guy calling for help. He went over and realized the guy had somehow slipped off a log or something and impaled himself on a branch.

I've thought about trying it but it sounds like its really hard to make money your first season and your experience really depends on the crew you're on. My one cousin did it for years and made tons of money, her younger sister didn't even last the season.
Apr 5 2011 7:47PM
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chicken
Posts: 6843 - Karma: 2,123
I don't need a rifle in the bush. I just said I would be happy to have one if I encountered a grizzly with a cub. If I am in the bush not working for a company, chances are close to 100% I have a gun with me. It's not like I am scared or ill-prepared to be out there by myself without one, I just would rather carry the extra few pounds if I had the option.
Apr 5 2011 11:23PM
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vailsux.com
Posts: 1769 - Karma: 440
A farmers work is never done. . .
Apr 6 2011 12:25AM
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mommy
Posts: 12072 - Karma: 59
why bother? it's so much easier to burn them
Apr 6 2011 4:34AM
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mommy
Posts: 12072 - Karma: 59
or at least shoot them
Apr 6 2011 4:36AM
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oreopancake.
Posts: 2596 - Karma: 21
this is my summer job:

Apr 6 2011 4:52AM
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neutralzombie
Posts: 8629 - Karma: 606
what idiot gave teenagers rights?
Apr 6 2011 8:57AM
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cool_name
Posts: 4295 - Karma: 3,131
ya i few questions about treeplanting could one of guys help me out? 1.around how old should be? 2. how much could some make in their first season?(i realise you make more after your first season)
3. when is the season in bc (cause i dont get out of school till late june cause of provincials)and does anyone know of a good company to try to work for in BC?
Apr 7 2011 1:17AM
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Drail
Posts: 14012 - Karma: 10,010
There is a large range of ages that go planting. One of my foreman's sons came out for a bit of planting when he was 15. He didn't become a pounder or anything, but he was fully able to plant. On the other side of the spectrum, I've had 40 some odd year old rookies come out and stick with it for 4 or so years, making good coin. As for the former, it really comes down to availability. You really need to be done highschool in order to get a job in the planting industry here in Canada. Across the country the regular planting season starts up as the snow melts (late april/early may). and companies don't really do much hiring into the spring season.

In British Columbia the planting season goes as such: Late Feb the coast (mostly low lying Vancouver Island) starts up and goes till early April. Late April/early May the interior starts up... this is the meat and potatoes of BC planting, it runs for two or so months, typically ending in early July. from mid July to mid August it's too hot and dry in BC to plant so everything shuts down... a lot of people head out to Alberta to keep working into August during this time. Myself I take this time to go on a trip somewhere cool. In mid to lake August the coast starts back up and we plant on the coast till mid October.

Coaster planting is what separates the boys from the men, it's very rare to get a job on a coastal crew as a rookie. As for good companies, all the really good ones won't hire rookies due to the state of the industry at the moment. I'd say Brinkman is your best bet. none of their camps are bad, some are better than others yes, but none are bad. And as for how much you make, it's really up to you... I'd say in your first season if you do a three month season (BC for may/june and Alberta for july) you should make 5-10g but expect it to be closer to 5. Last year I only ended up working 3 months instead of my usual 4 and walked away with 20g. combine that with EI and I had the entire winter off to ski and party with no money worries.

It's a good way of making money in the summer and having your winters off... but it's not the only way. Forest fire fighting is worth looking into, as well as the sport fishing world, and many other options - i'd keep going on and on, but I have to go skiing now. peace.
Apr 7 2011 11:47AM
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squibble
Posts: 4569 - Karma: 104
a friend of mine did that, she didnt like it, but she might not be the "type" of person to enjoy bushwhacking,
Apr 7 2011 1:27PM
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BenWest
Posts: 470 - Karma: 89
I was walkin home from school today and heard a chainsaw start up. huuuuuge smile spread across my face... so pumped to be heading back to the bush in three weeks. Obviously no chainsaws around while treeplanting, but after two months of that then thinning starts, which is a whole other awesome hellish experience.
Apr 7 2011 3:10PM
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