missing the trees?

I spent the past three summers of my life working as a silvaculture engineer in Northern British Columbia. Well, actually I was nothing more than a treeplanter, but I like to try to make it sound better than it actually is.

People often ask me if I liked treeplanting, to which I would reply that it was a love/hate relationship. In all honestly it is a job like no other, in almost every way possible. I mean how many other jobs require you to provide a tent for your housing, pay you per piece, or allow you to wear duct tape on your fingers as part of a daily routine? But to be honest treeplanting was good to me. I planted for the same small company for all three seasons, which was packed full of amazing people. In fact some of my favourite people on earth I met while planting, I guess it makes sense that I would bond with people in that same experience. Treeplanting was also good to me financially as I know how to work hard and was often nothing short of a machine.

I've had a number of people ask me recently if I miss not planting this summer. My first response is a hearty "no way". But there are parts I do miss, the feeling of accomplishment at the end of a big day of planting that nothing else can quite parallel, or the feeling of sitting down around a campfire at the end of a 5 day-long shift knowing there are two days ahead to relax and the crazy people I work with who always make me laugh. But then I think about the things I don't miss like the bugs, the rain, the cracks in my hands from repeatedly sticking them in the ground day after day, the way almost every part of my body would scream at me at night and then again in the morning, sleeping in a tent, being around too many boys all summer long (trust me it may sound exciting, but it grows old very quickly), and I'm okay with not being there. Even last night my planting partner from last summer told me he had a record-breaking day of planting, and I felt a twinge be it ever so slight, rise up from within me and almost made me want to be there planting myself. But I shook that feeling of quickly enough and was excited for him instead.


While in Switzerland earlier this month I did some hiking and decided that is just what I will do every summer to get treeplanting out of my system, go for a nice long hike and be thankful I don't have a forty pound bag of trees strapped to my waist. And that will help me to not miss the trees.