[travelforever]

I hope so.

[Timetrvlr]

Originally Posted by Raptor235

Does anyone know of any websites where you can find out how to volunteer for planting trees? It would be something I wouldn't mind doing once in a while...

Why not spend a summer as a paid tree planter? Learn about it from the ground up! I know the silviculture industry is always short of treeplanters so there are jobs available.

More information from Wikipedia:
In Canada


A cutblock fifteen years after replanting



A 21-year-old plantation of red pine in Southern Ontario.




Most treeplanting in Canada is carried out by private reforestation companies in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Northern Ontario and Quebec. Reforestation companies compete with one another for contracts from logging companies, whose annual allowable cut for the following year is based upon how much money they invest into reforestation and other silvicultural practices. Treeplanting is typically piece work and tree prices can vary widely depending on the difficulty of the terrain and on the winning contract's bid price. As a result, there is a saying among planters: "There is no bad land, only bad contracts."


Planting is carried out in accordance to the client's specifications, and planters are expected to learn the quality standards for each contract that they work on. Planted cutblocks are spot checked on a regular basis. Although quality concerns vary across contracts, spot checkers are typically looking for such things as: species appropriate site choice, species appropriate spacing, how tight the seedlings are in the ground, how straight the seedlings are, and whether or not the seedlings have been damaged.
A new art form is developing with the emergence of aerial photography and satellite imagery. Foresters and tree farmers are now starting to plant patterns with different species and learning how to paint pictures or plant by numbers. Using different trees as colors in a painting the forests are starting to resemble crop circles and giant time lapse paintings at specific scales.


The average BC planter plants 1 600 trees per day. These numbers are higher in central and eastern Canada, where the terrain is generally faster. Planters typically work 8-10 hours per day with an additional 1 to 2 hours of (usually) unpaid travelling time. Work weeks on British Columbian planting contracts are usually 4-5 days long, with 1-2 days off. In Ontario, work weeks are generally 5-6 days long, with 1 day off.


Treeplanting is seasonal labour and has become a popular form of employment for young Canadian adults, many of whom spend their summers planting trees in order to pay their university tuitions. In British Columbia, where the season is longer, treeplanting is considered to be more of a career or profession than short term summer employment. Although treeplanting is difficult both mentally and physically, hard workers can generally earn well above the average student income. However, the learning curve is quite steep, so many planters do not reap the economic benefits of their work until the second season.


Based on statistics for British Columbia, the average treeplanter: lifts a cumulative weight of over 1 000 kilograms, bends more than 200 times per hour, drives the shovel into the ground more than 200 times per hour and travels over 16 kilometres with a heavy load, every day of the entire season. Encounters with wildlife, including grouse, stinging insects, moose and even bears are frequent, but the greatest danger that treeplanters face is the risk of injury caused by the repetitive and jarring work. The reforestation industry has an average annual injury rate of approximately 22 claims per 100 workers.