This is my tree planting blog. For those who do not know, tree planting is a primarily canadian enterprise where people live for months on end in small tents(and sometimes hotel rooms) and plant tree’s all day. You are paid per tree thus you want to plant as many tree’s as possible. You wake up at 5am, put on your cold wet clothes and go eat a massive breakfast. You then walk, drive or take a helicopter to your block of land, bag up with a 100 seedlings and get to work. 10 hours later you head back to camp for another giant meal. You plant in the rain, snow and 40 degree heat. The season lasts 40 to 70 days.
Tree planting is regarded as the hardest job both mentally and physically in Canada and is on the top ten list for the same world wide.
When I first began researching tree planting I found it really difficult to find blogs. I desperately wanted to know what I was getting myself into
and ate up any and all information
I found. This is why i’ve made the decision to make this blog open to everyone instead of private or friends only. I hope to inspire or scare away people who are thinking about tree planting, entertain people with what i’m sure will be interesting stories and keep my friends and family informed with what it is I am doing.
One of the downsides to tree planting would have to be the starting costs. Usually you are not provided with anything. Here is a summary of what i’ve bought and their costs:
Tent: 250$, Sleeping Bag: 130$, Boots: 150$, Duffle Bag: 30$, Day Pack: 45$, Shovel: 60$, Planting Bags + inserts: 100$, Extra’s(duct tape, water bottles, gloves etc…): ???$.
One of the upsides to tree planting would have to be the food. According to everyone i’ve talked to, you eat better than you ever have in your life. Every camp has a handfull of cooks whose job it is to feed you as much as they can. A tree planter will burn 3000 calories a day so it’s very necessary
to get back all that energy.
For those who do not know, I am a vegan(someone who abstains from consuming or using any animal products including eggs, dairy, leather products and any animal bi-product) This will hopefully not be a problem with the cooks but i’ve had my assurances that it won’t.
Anyways, I leave for Prince George on tuesday at noon. This is looking like it will be an exciting summer and I hope you enjoy reading this blog and please leave comments or feel free to send me an email!