When I was in University a popular summer job in Ontario was to go to Northern Ontario and plant trees for a summer. We were told you could make a lot of money.
My friend Julie and I needed money to pay for our french immersion course in the South of France in the coming fall. SO we both got hired on at a tree planting company.
It was really hard work, carrying around about 50 pounds of little saplings all day. You were giving a section of land that you had to cover. A tree should be planted every 6 feet in each direction. At first we really cared that the tree was planted well and would survive and grow into maturity. But that caring took too much time and we would be making negative money in a day after they deducted the room and board.
Our environmental concern were soon out the window all we cared was that the tree was planted well enough so the inspector would pass it.
Every 10 seconds or so you could plant a tree once you got good.
Even though the work was hard we had so much fun that summer. Our crew was fabulous. It was like being at summer camp, food fights and pranks played on each other. Like the time they put the dead snake in my lunch bag , it is funny now but believe you me it wasn't at the time.
I found this postcard in a stand of free postcards in a restaurant and thought of my friend Julie that planted trees with me. So off it goes to Vancouver to her mailbox.
By coincidence I attended a meeting last evening that was all about tree planting. Seems the province of Ontario has determined that our township should have 30% tree coverage. We are much below that. While there are a few tree planting initiatives, we need more. In neighbouring Wellington County they have a program called the Green Legacy, which is quite impressive.
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