Tree planting gear is as much a personal preference thing as anything else. Comfort, functionality, and durability are king when it comes to what gear to choose. This post will provide advice to keep in mind when selecting which gear you bring. I like to break down the planting experience into what I consider the 3 things you will be doing with your time: SLEEPING, WORKING, and RELAXING.

We start with SLEEPING because it is probably the most important tool you have to keeping your self healthy and sane in the bush. If you are not getting good quality sleep at night, everything (and everyone) else will suffer.

The nights at the beginning of the spring contract (and most of the summer for that matter) will drop below freezing. Gear that is essential to keeping you warm while sleeping consists of:

2 winter rated sleeping bags, one to go inside the other
Warm blanket
Toque
Long underwear
Wool socks
Comfortable pillow
Sleeping bag liner (Much easier to wash than a whole sleeping bag, especially after a hard week when you were too tired to shower)
Air mattress (Note: This must be insulated from the ground somehow. A cheap foamy on top of an air mattress will stop the cold from creeping through your mattress.)

Also, the size of your tent will determine how warm you are at night. A smaller tent hold the heat better, but may become a pain in the ass after having to get dressed with a hunch back all season. Conversely, a big tent will give you lots of space, but you’ll need extra warm sleeping bags, and maybe more blankets.

Other things to think about for sleeping time:

Flashlight, I prefer a head lamp, it’s easier for middle of the night pees.
Easily accessible toilet paper
Book(s), Ipod, etc.

Here are a few links to some very thorough gear lists.

Tree-planter.com
Replant.ca
Nataram.com

All the above links are great resources for getting you prepared for planting. The Nata link includes some prices from last year to give you a ball park of what you can expect to pay for brand new gear. If cost is an issue for you I highly recommend getting used equipment. You can save a bunch of money and pain, as broken in gear is WAY more comfortable than shiny new gear.

Both Tree-planter.com and Replant.ca give a good background behind the reasoning for selecting certain types of gear over others.

If you are going to be working for me as a tree planter, there are some things you need to know about me and my management style. I am a lead by example kind of guy. If you know me, you know I work hard, and it is my promise to you as my crew that I will work as hard as I can to ensure that you are always in a position to make the most money you can. As a foreman, I get paid based on how productive you are as a crew. Basically, the more money you make, the more money I make… and to be honest, I want to make lots money this season. Therefor, I will be pushing you everyday to work towards the potential that only tree planting will bring out in you. I hope to push you to reach and surpass limits you never knew you had, you may at times hate me, thats OK, your bank account however will thank me.

All that being said, tree planting is not a job for everyone. It is consistently ranked as one of the hardest jobs in Canada for a reason, it is hard work! You will on a daily basis have to overcome physical and mental stress that, if you are a rookie, you have never experienced before. As a student of psychology, I have learned ad nauseum that everyone is motivated by different things. As a veteran highballer, I can tell you that if making money is not your prime motivation for going planter, perhaps you should consider another summer job. The good times and great experiences that you hear planters talking about are usually had by those who are pounding every day and making tons of cash. DO NOT GO PLANTING FOR THE EXPERIENCE… come for the money, and the experience will take care of itself.

Recipe: To plant a tree by Robin MacDonald

Take one tree in hand. With your foot, screef away the ‘litter layer’ and make a ‘C’ cut into the soil with your shovel. Place the pod into the ground making sure that it sits vertical. Close the hole with your hand creating a vapor seal around the pod. Be sure that the lateral is visible and that the tree points to the sky. Space the next tree 2.2 meters away. Repeat 2000-4000 times per day for 3 months.

The perfect tree

I open my eyes, unzip my sleeping bag and am greeted to a new day by the bitter cold. I look at my alarm clock and the temperature reads, “2 degrees Celsius”. I think it’s mocking me. I put on 2 wool sweaters and leave my toque on. I find my crew at the mess tent and pound back 2 sausages, pancakes, porridge, eggs, coffee and water. I’ll need the nutrients to make it to 10am when I’ll down a PB and J sandwich; the first of three I packed for lunch.
With eight of us packed into a Ford 350 Super duty pickup truck our foreman, Dave, hits the gas and we’re rolling down a logging road. Most in the truck use the drive to catch a few extra minutes of sleep before the official start of the workday. Although, if you ask me, work at this camp begins when I wake up.

The Pirate Crew

Today, we’re only driving part of the way to the block. The access road has been deactivated and will be flown the rest of the way via helicopter. We pull up to a flat spot on the road where the chopper will be able to land and begin to unload the 20,000 trees our crew will plant that day. The chopper buzzes overhead, pulling up dust and debris with its huge rotors. It lands on the road in front of us and I think this is so cool. Loaded up with our daypacks, shovels and 4-6 liters of water, the first 4 board the chopper and head out. The ride today will take us over two mountain ranges in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia. White caps, river valley’s and pine and spruce forest fill the landscape.

The Heli Show 2

After we land someone says, “I think this is what the army must be like.”
For the next 8 hours we plant as hard and as fast as we can. We put our heads down and ‘pound!’ With the planting bags filled with 400 trees they can weigh 40 pounds or more, although, we never did break out a scale. At 4:30 we run out of trees and the helicopter returns to take us back to the trucks.
Arriving back at camp, we’re covered in blood, sweat and tears. Mud sticks to our skin and is caked under our nails. We head straight to the kitchen for dinner. This is our reward: a hot meal and maybe even a hot shower (if the pump is working) at the end of the day.
After dinner we sit around the bonfire, sharing stories of the day, complaining, laughing and bonding. At 9 o’clock, people start to head back to their tents. Only 9 hours until we get up and do it all over again. Today, I’m physically drained. I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and dream of helicopter bugs, buzzing around my ears while a bear sits on a stump in front of me reciting poetry. I think the bush is starting to get to me…

Photos provided courtesy of Devin Glage, James Herbison, Gwyneth McMillan and Mary Smith.

The first step in preparing is yourself for planting is getting your body in top shape. As a tree planter, you are essentially a company of one, and your body is your company’s most valuable asset. Since an automatic planting machine hasn’t been invented yet you are the reforestation industry’s most advanced piece of planting equipment. The question you have to ask yourself is “do I want to be a shiny, well-oiled, well-built machine, or a rusted piece of crap that only works sometime?”

It is in your best interest to get your body in top shape because the formula for successful planting is simple.

Hard Work - Down time= $$$.

If down time equals ‘0′, your hard work will pay off, but if you’re stuck peeling carrots in the kitchen for days because your back is shot, or your knees are giving out, or you have tendinitis, your hard work isn’t going to pay as well.

I have done some research on the suggestions on the internet for planting fitness, and to be honest, it is lacking. The best planting specific program available is the Fit to Plant system put out by Shelkirk College. My main concern with Fit to plant is however, it’s specificity. By only working muscles that you use for planting, you are neglecting a huge part of what makes planting so difficult. A typical day (see post below) involves much more than just taking 3 steps, bending over, putting a tree in the ground, repeat… there are plenty of obstacles on your piece, tree boxes to be moved, mountains to climb, and cliffs to hang off. The ideal physical preparation for planting should involve a full body regime.

In following with this notion, I suggest checking out Crossfit to get yourself in shape. Crossfit is a full body work out system that in my humble opinion is unrivaled as a training system for anyone who considers themselves an athlete. Their “work out of the day’s” (WOD’s) provide an ultra intense, full body workout on a randomized schedule. The idea is to allow your body to become comfortable performing in high intensity situation, and never allow it to adapt to a routine by varying the WOD’s on a random schedule.

I can only skim the surface of how beneficial Crossfit will be to your planting season. Please check out the website for yourself, and read as much of the information they provide (for free) for yourself.

www.crossfit.com