One Million Trees (2020) Movie Script
Before a tree is planted in Canada,
a tree must first be cut down.
A piece of paper is signed,
a road is carved into the bush.
Before a tree can be planted,
the logging debris must be burned.
Seedlings are sprayed with pesticides;
wrapped in plastic;
packed into non-recyclable,
wax-coated boxes
and then transported across the country
in refrigerated trucks.
And of course,
before any tree is planted in Canada,
there must be a workforce
prepared plant them.
This is that story.
You get paid a piece rate.
That means you get paid per tree.
Prices range from as low as 10 cents
to as high as 35 cents per tree.
The average worker will typically plant
anywhere between 1000
to 4000 trees in a day.
This is a cut block.
Thats where wood comes from.
Sometimes they look like this,
and other times they look like this.
This is your shovel,
these are your bags,
this is where you sleep,
and this is how you get to work.
Work is seasonal. Thats because trees
are best planted in the spring.
For most planters,
a season lasts two to three months,
but some people do work
up to 9 months of the year
by travelling to different regions
and altitudes across the country.
Breakfast is served at 6:00,
you hop in the truck at 7:00,
you work 8-10 hours a day
and theres only one thing you need to do.
So I started planting
after my second year of university, and...
I kind of first went into it just thinking
it was an iconic summer job to do
and didn't really know what else.
I was living of my friends couch,
and I was just like kinda floating around,
doing like landscaping work, I was like...
Went to university and then dropped out
and then went travelling, and I was like...
3 grand in debt, and I was like, "What am I
doing with my life? I have no idea"
I was justlike so lost.
Like, I was just-- I was just lost, man.
I was just looking for
some direction in life.
I had a cousin who...
She was wild and way cooler than me,
and she went planting and told me
all of these hilarious stories,
and it sounded like she was
living a lot better than I was.
I was doing a Bachelor of Science;
I was in my first year;
I was super depressed,
and I was just kinda lost and confused.
And, you know,
my parents asked me many times,
Are you sure this is what you wanna do?
My mom actually said to me,
"You know that tree planting is all, like,
sex and drugs and partying,"
and I was like, Yes, sign me up,
because I was 20.
I remember the cook
had a really hard time
keeping everyone off
the kitchen bus,
because for some reason on party night,
everyone wanted to go in there and
take their clothes off
and dance around.
The parties there are great because
theres just-- theres no rules.
Theres no limitations.
Theres no parents, right?
Theres no cops. So,
they go to all hours of dawn, you know?
All freaking night. Anything goes.
You know, thats part of the work,
is you work super hard and just let loose.
My names Shami,
and Ive planted 150,000 trees.
I sucked at tree planting,
and it was hard. I was the kid
who skipped PE in high school.
My first day planting,
it had snowed the night before,
like a solid like 5 centimetre,
and so we got to the block,
you know, were looking out the window
and theres snow everywhere,
and they said, Yeah, theyre like,
theres too much snow, we cant go plant,
and so like our first day
was canceled basically, you know?
Learning how to plant a tree is simple,
but planting them perfectly
while moving quickly and efficiently
takes years to master.
Basically you open a hole,
you put the tree in it,
and then you close the hole.
But its not always that easy.
You have to maintain a standard of quality
to meet changing contract specifications.
This is a plot cord.
Its used to measure a 3.9m circular section
of your land called a plot.
These are tree checkers.
They will be making sure
youve planted your trees properly
and with the right spacing.
The spacing they want could be any number
between 4 to 12 trees in a plot,
and its your job
to know how to alter the spacing
in order to plant what is
required,
and to do it consistently
throughout your many hectares of workspace.
Planting too many
or too few trees in the plot
is considered a fault.
A fault is also
any tree thats not planted perfectly.
They cant be too shallow;
they cant be too deep.
Not too tight, not too loose.
But most importantly and above all else,
every tree must be planted
in mineral soil.
That summer after my first planting season,
I went hitchhiking
from Saskatchewan to Vancouver Island,
and I got stuck at ,like, a...
nudist hippie commune.
I would say I definitely fell out
of the Catholic religion
while I was planting, so...
just the fall
after my first planting season,
I bought a sweater that said,
Smoke meth and hail Satan,
and that was someone who was like...
in nursing school and like super Catholic
and very conservative thinking.
To do that in like
the span of three months, like,
something happened.
Planting.
My second year, like we had just
a lot of crazy things happen.
So I ended up getting...
frostbite in three fingers
and was borderline hypothermic.
So we climbed up into this skinny
little pine tree, or whatever it was,
and the moose was like
butting the bottom of the tree
and hes in the top like swaying
back and forth screaming bloody murder.
I was between a mom and its cub,
and so she like false charged
and like snapping her jaw
As she paws me,
I feel her rough pad
come down on my head,
down my cheek, and then slap me
in the collarbone and chest.
And Im looking to my side,
and theres just...
a couple hundred foot cliff
into this ravine
and Im starting to shake.
So we had to stay til like 8:00 at night,
and there was this rainstorm
so like, the helicopter
couldnt come and pick us up,
and like we had to finish all the trees.
Were like crying in the pouring rain.
I hit my first wasp nest,
got stung like 6 or 7 times on my leg.
One guy broke his ankle,
had toget like escorted out.
So Im like super drowsy,
I have no idea whats going on,
I guess like someone fainted
and another guy got a nosebleed
from like the CO2 gas,
and like everyone
was getting headaches.
And then we got like evacuated,
and we had to--
we actually still planted
the rest of the day at a different place,
and I was like, Are you kidding me?
we all just went through this
horrible, traumatic experience
and we still have to finish planting?
But ,like, I guess thats planting.
My names Brent Fokkens
and I planted maybe 300,000 trees.
It was therapeutic.
I think I was harbouring a lot of...
a lot of emotional stress and pain,
like, within my body
and that physical exertion
brought those emotions up
and kind of allowed me
to work through them.
Growing up in a small town,
being a gay guy wasnt easy.
I was using 3 to 6 grams of cocaine a week
and drinking heavily.
Id become so volatile, so toxic,
that friendships were...
kind of eroded and I was alone.
And I needed to, like,
just be by myself
and sit with myself
and reflect on myself.
And tree planting,
you get a lot of time to do that.
To be out, alone
with your thoughts,
planting trees,
humbled by a huge bear
or a huge moose
thinking, This could kill me
at any second
you know, realizing that like
Im actually very small,
it is a healing experience,
and were alone with
our psychology
to unpeel this, like,
onion of unresolved traumas
that just comes to the surface.
And theres nobody around watching us
so that we can just cry.
you know? We just let it out. Like, this is
the, you know, normal place in a lot
of planting camps. You know, like
Oh, you didnt cry yet? you know?
Like, You should cry.
You should really let it out, man.
I think honestly its because of like
the lack of stimulation,
like, youre so open to
whats going on like inside
that you can just like
feel all these things
that you normally dont have time
to feel in the real world, right?
People crying on the block, like,
half the time its not even about
the planting; its about like,
you know, your dad didnt love you enough
or whatever,
and it just comes out
when youre in this, like,
sensory deprivation area.
Ive seen grown men, like,
burst into tears
and then...
petite women just crush everyone
and be the most bad-ass thing.
Its, like, it's such an equalizer,
tree planting.
Its just whatever preconception
about strength and capability
you think you have, its like...
see people on the block
because youll see their true nature
if you see them tree planting.
You have no one
but your own thoughts out there,
and if youre not at peace,
it's gonna come out on the block,
so being able to sort of control--
like conquer your mind, I think,
is probably the hardest thing.
And I think thats the--
you know, being efficient
and being physically fit
are really important things,
but being able to actually be in control
of your thoughts and emotions,
thats the hardest part of tree planting.
If you wanna make any money,
like, you cant give up,
and the only thing to do
is keep planting trees.
And its kind of a metaphor for life
because in life, its the same way.
It doesnt matter, like, what youre
dealing with or what youre going through,
its eventually gonna pass,
and all you have to do is, like,
put one foot in front of the other
and put your shovel in the ground.
Were out there to do a job
that needs to be done.
When a forest is cut in Canada,
trees have to be replanted,
and thats part
of the cost of the wood.
What were doing is...
planting trees
for commercial harvest, right?
Like, its already--
its been cycled through at least once
when youre replanting a block,
and its not for the Earth at that point,
its just for commercial consumption.
Ultimately, youre just part of the system
of what, like,
makes destroying trees possible.
So its like youre kind of
a cog in the system.
Planters get jaded right away,
especially like first
and second year planters.
We find out that, Oh, these trees
are just gonna be cut down again."
"Oh man, were not
environmentalists at all;
were just another cog in the logging
machine.
This is bullshit.
And then people get jaded.
And then its like cool to be jaded by it,
so that when a non-planter can be like,
Good for you for planting those
trees.
then like the jaded third year vet
is just like,
Yeah, but theyre all
gonna get cut down again,
you know, trying to just be the pessimist.
But, you know, Ive been that guy.
Ive been like, You know,
its all just gonna get cut down again.
Its not that good.
But, uh
the end, its like--
well, yeah, its...
it's still something to be proud of.
I mean, we all get jaded about it, but...
in the end, were doing
the better part of the industry, I think.
Im proud to be the guy
that puts em back
rather than the guy
that cuts em down.
I remember returning to
one of the blocks that we had planted,
and just seeing them, like,
sprout a little bit,
and it just like hit me, like,
this is real, like, this is happening.
Like, were growing something.
So, its weird to think that in our path
these just giants will sprout up behind us.
And oftentimes, were not gonna get
the opportunity to see those
develop and become the forests
that are in northern BC or Alberta
or wherever youre planting,
but we leave a lot of
really incredible growth in our wake
and I think thats something that were
certainly like incredibly proud of.
Youre not learning anything.
Youre not growing in any way.
Just using your body, right?
Definitely cant do this forever.
It could set you back, right?
Just years of nothing, really.
Well, originally it was to
pay for university.
I made it through that.
Now Ive just been doing it to ski.
Yeah, you get nice things and...
afford to go on cool trips
and whatnot, but...
I dont know.
How long is that worth it?
My name is Emma Power
and I planted roughly 450,000 trees.
There was like a party night
that went terribly wrong for me,
and I really--
I wanted to tell someone about that,
and I did.
It is really challenging
because most of the time...
the people in charge are men.
You complain to someone,
and if youre lucky
that persons good enough
to do something about it. But...
I personally was at a camp
that had a rapist in it
and he wasnt getting fired
because he planted the most trees.
That is insane,
and that did not make
my experience planting very great.
Um. In fact, it taught me
how to face
really challenging situations emotionally
and grow from that.
I think the fact that
tree planting is an environment
where people are isolated
and its majority male dominated,
it can leave women really vulnerable.
Boundaries can so easily get crossed,
especially when theres
drinking and drugs involved.
You look around
and you see your friends,
and like you think,
Oh, that wont happen,
but it does happen and...
its fact. Its out there;
its happening;
and thats like the first step
to making a change is just like awareness.
I didnt go down this road back here.
Is there any down that one,
- this road?
- Yeah.
- Is there some down there?
- Yeah, you can cruise down there.
- I just need a few more trees.
- OK
Yeah, I started crew bossing
in my third season.
My foreman in my first year--
she was my foreman for the entire season.
She was so motivating.
She was so stoked, she was like...
happy but assertive
and knew what she wanted,
and she was my motivation.
I was like, Im gonna be like her one day.
Shes dope.
Hey if you come down to our...
[radio static]
Copy
It was my foreman in my rookie year
that told me
about the three rules of tree planting;
etiquette, ethics and empathy.
When sharing land,
its considered good etiquette
to leave your flagger tape in a high spot
so that the person following behind
can see where youve planted your trees.
If you have to pass by another planter,
take a moment and leave some space
to empathize,
and remember that they, too,
are a competitive and overworked person
who just skipped lunch.
Ethics in tree planting
is all about the cream.
Good land means money,
and bad land is self explanatory,
so when you have someone
that goes out of their way
to plant the good parts
while avoiding the bad parts,
they might as well be taking money
straight off your paycheque.
Theres something meditative
about the posture of planting
and the repetition of it,
and it gets you into that...
open-minded space.
I do remember planting once
where the light was coming
through the canopy of the trees
and making...
spots of light on the ground
through the shade,
and I just planted a tree
on every spot that was light.
And it was really creamy ground,
so I just thought that was...
working in-- with the universe
a little bit more than normal.
But its sure nice to feel like
youre connected to the land
rather than against it, you know?
If you can get into that mindset out there
where you're working with things
and loose, and
and... uh, kind of
a bit of reverence going on maybe almost,
then youre in a good spot.
Once you like shut everything down,
the pain, the torrents, the weather,
and you just focus on;
one more tree,
one more tree, one more tree,
and it becomes so meditative and peaceful,
and theres that point you reach
where you genuinely love
the act of tree planting.
I enjoy the heavy weight;
I enjoy stepping over obstacles.
I like the rhythm of it.
I like when my shovel
just finds the spot.
So youre doing everything perfectly,
and at the end of the day,
youve put in 3,000 trees, 2,000 trees,
something that
at the beginning of the season
or when you began planting
seemed impossible,
you know, what is being in flow state,
shutting the frontal cortex
and having your whole nervous system
be your brain,
your system is all in the highest state
of joy and satisfaction,
but your experience is completely strange.
The afternoon goes by
in seemingly five minutes,
but the state of being in that place
seems timeless.
Well, thats flow state,
and its only in flow state
that you can manage that.
So, we have an industry
thats in the business of extreme sports
at an Olympic level.
Its kind of an extreme sport
where you put your body at risk
for the reward.
You test yourself
and see what youre capable of. You--
its extreme, extreme repetition.
You get good at it only by doing that thing
thousands and thousands
and thousands of times in a day.
My names Nick Holatko
and Ive probably planted
about 600,000 trees
to three quarters of a million.
This would be a pretty bad day
for sure, yeah.
I mean, days like this where pretty much
you wake up in the rain
and it just rains nonstop,
I actually prefer those days
to the days that are like on and off rain
because you can just
get out of the truck,
put your rain gear on, and
you know youre set for the day.
But when the conditions are changing
and one minute its hot
you gotta take your jacket off,
and then it starts pouring,
or you forget your jacket and youre like
200 trees in the back of your piece,
those are-- those are the days I like less
than these ones.
I dont mind these.
I think Im gonna be moving on
to other things in the next year here.
Yeah, I went back to school for--
to get a real estate license,
trainings license,
so Im working on that right now
in the evenings and on days off, and...
yeah, kind of prepared a bit
of an exit strategy after I--
yeah, I think Ive had enough.
Its a classic planting curse,
you have lots of money in August;
you spend it frivolously;
and by the time April comes around,
youre poor
and youre just like,
Whens planting starting?
I need money.
Many of my friends talk about this,
its easy to stay stuck
because its so fun.
The next thing you know
youre in your mid-20s
and you want some more consistency
in your life.
You know, living out of a suitcase
was great for a long time, but...
yeah, Im not really into it any more.
Im excited to grow out of it, yeah.
Ive just-- of my god,
Ive got so much love in my heart
right now just talking about it.
You know? Just thinking about
all the times--
Ive loved so many people tree planting.
Just my friends, romantic love, oh my god.
Yeah, it really...
really lights a fire in you, you know?
Sometimes really good,
sometimes really bad.
I cant wait to go back.
Here I'm talking about
how I cant wait to get out of it
you know, have some more consistency
in my life, but...
Yeah
Thats how it gets you,
you know, feeling like this,
feeling so happy and proud, and...
Yeah, I can't wait.
After my sixth interior year,
I came to the coast.
Yeah, the coast is
a totally different ballgame.
I swear Ive developed
like some minor PTSD from the coast.
Ill send four people in
to plant this one day.
Cover this area
with about 400 trees each.
But it sounds like
Im going to be box dropping.
- He said it might be a little too foggy.
- OK
They have to walk across this gully
and go to another central spot here
where theyve--
Ive put trees with a helicopter.
Their lunch is there and their water,
and then they cover off the rest
of this area, straight up the hill.
So theyre going almost
250 metres straight uphill
when theyre covering these areas.
My mom,
she planted while she was pregnant
with me until like 6 months.
She could probably
tell you more about that.
There was a really bad weather day,
and I was pregnant,
and I was planting,
and I came up to bag up again,
and there are all these guys
that were sitting in truck
because it was too cold to plant,
and they were like, Oh.
They kind of got out of the truck
because they didnt want to be, you know,
embarrassed by this pregnant person
planting
when they were not.
My names Erin Bros
and Ive planted roughly
750,000 trees.
My name is Deborah Hirkala,
and Ive planted,
Id say, approximately
three quarters of a million trees.
I shift from living in a tent
to now like--
like, I wont sleep on the ground anymore.
Theres sort of this like progression
of like tree planting
that often happens, especially when
youve been in the game
for like 6, 7, 8,
and many more years than that.
You know, you eventually
stop sleeping in a tent.
Like, theres not very many people I know
that have been planting
for as long as I have
that still sleep in a tent.
I remember having a dream
where I was sitting
at a coffee shop
in like some urban city
environment setting,
and then I just, like,
looked in a reflection
and I was in full tree planting clothes,
like bags and everything,
dirt all over my face.
And that was like--
I woke up from that dream thinking,
like, This has definitely
changed my life,
and this is kind of like
a new thing that Im taking on
thats gonna define who I am
for the next many years.
You know, I cant lie,
I took it on; I was proud.
I would go back to the city and Id say,
like Im a tree planter, with pride.
And what people took out of that,
I dont know.
Like, some of them might have been like,
Oh god, another tree planter.
But I said it with like,
Im a f--king tree planter.
Like, this is who I am, right?
Like, I belong to a community.
I belong to a culture of people
who all share like a common--
a common ground.
Weve suffered the same things.
Even if it was in different areas of Canada
on a different block
on a completely different day,
the experiences are all so similar of
like what you go through collectively.
You end up becoming friends
with the weirdest people,
and then you become like
proud to know those people
because theyre so weird.
And its made me more accepting.
Its taught me that Im-- that like
I used to be a really judgemental person,
and I used to have a lot of attitudes
that were wrong.
And I think Ive changed those attitudes,
just from the exposure Ive gotten
to the variety of people
that go tree planting.
My names Josh Lichti
and I think Ive planted
somewhere around 1.1 million.
So yes, where Im at right now,
Im thinking if I dont
start making moves now,
I will be stuck in--
I will be stuck in planting lifestyle.
Not that theres anything wrong with that
because theres some really great people
whove put in 20 years, 30 years,
that just love this,
and they will never quit. I just--
I just dont know if Im gonna be happy
if I keep going.
And thats what I dont wanna be.
I dont wanna be the crusty old guy
thats just,
Ive been planting for 40 years
and the tree price
has stayed the same, argh.
I dont wanna be that guy
who just goes out there and just pounds
and smoking 20 cigarettes,
bitching about the land.
If I keep going, Im gonna be that guy.
I gotta get out.
I gotta get out now.
Anything to say to the people?
Earth walkers, you know?
Whether youre corporeal or ethereal
or ascending, or--
were all in this thing together.
Thats the-- its important
that you know that.
Were all in this thing together.
So, lets care for each other.
Because that shared consciousness thing
is for real. Thats a for real thing.
And when we are in this thing together,
so...
Boss mans coming. Production matters.
See ya guys.
Im Fijona Brinkman
and I have planted 600,000 trees.
Dave Guise, Ive planted
probably close to 2 million trees.
Normally like youre dating, and
youre gonna see the person at, you know,
periodic intervals for months and months
and months, and
people maybe kinda put up
a bit of a facade or whatever,
but, you know, tree planting,
it strips all the facades away
- very quickly, so...
- Yeah, theres no facade out there.
Its impossible.
We got these super dorky helmets on;
sometimes theres safety glasses.
Weve got like massive hi-vis vests.
Theres like almost nothing sexy
about the clothes
that were wearing out there.
And the bush dumps.
Dont even get me started
on the bush dumps.
- Actually,
- No.
trying to deal with bathroom stuff
in the forest
is a really big problem.
Yeah, theres no outhouses out there,
people.
Theres no outhouses.
A raspberry.
Yum, yum. Just one.
Oh well.
My name is Jim Courchesne
and Ive planted about 2 million trees.
This is basically the clear-cut
at the end of my street.
I planted these trees
about 15 years ago.
Yeah, when I moved here,
this was all beautiful forest,
and then they logged it.
Over the years of planting out of home,
Id come back after work,
and you have a few trees left
in your bags, and--
you know, and when you have this place
that you love
that was a beautiful forest,
it was very satisfying to do.
And some of them have already been cut down
or moved or mowed away, but...
but a lot survive.
Theres pine and fir
and spruce and cedars and...
and theres a forest.
Actually I taught my second--
my oldest who is planting now, I...
I showed him how to plant in here,
like before he came out the first time.
We like had a few bundles of trees,
so I told him about, yeah, spacing
and all that in here, yeah.
Made this a bit of a forest again, yeah.
Thats the best foreman on Earth
right there.
(in French) My name is Alain Belanger
and Im about 61,000 trees away
from 3 million.
You know, probably my proudest moment
was to see my 16-year-old daughter working,
and then it be sleeting, and it was like--
the snow would accumulate on the ground
and it would come back and accumulate
and come back,
and then I had a crew of people
working at the same time,
and then they all came in to work
in the truck,
then I would say,
OK, well here, just drive and
just gonna go and check on someone,
and then wed come back
and we stopped, seeing her--
you know, she's...
kind of smaller frame and so on--
and all these bigger guys, older guys,
and just go,
How you doing, Willow?
and shes like,
Im doing good.
They said Are you cold? Shes, No,
I just keep on working and I stay warm.
And I felt pretty proud of her
at that point, yeah.
Names Thomas Polley
and Ive planted 3 million trees.
Yeah, its probably primarily
a young persons game,
but some of us old guys,
we get addicted to it.
The sort of pain--
love and pain--
was it, love to hate the job?
Something like that, I dont know.
Sometimes you just love the job.
One, two, and three.
These things, they come in threes.
Twos and threes.
Phone, wallet, keys.
My names Erik Walsh
and Ive planted 7 million trees.
Yeah, its kind of ridiculous really.
Like...
Im of two minds about it.
Like, it seems like a life
kind of wasted in one way
you know, when you think of what else
a person could have achieved, you know,
with that much effort
into something, you know?
But at the same time, its kinda cool.
Oh yeah, thats the sort of thing I was
thinking about today,
you know, just how the trees come out
of your bag like one at a time.
Like, you bag em up
and theyre so heavy,
and then its just like
youre trying to plant them out
and just one at a time
its getting like imperceptibly lighter.
But then eventually, like,
thats the last one
and it just weighs nothing,
and then its like
you just do that over and over again
every day, and it just--
it reminds you of like these massive...
like, coordinated projects,
like building the pyramids
or some ridiculous thing,
you know, where you just have
countless workers just like
toiling away slowly, like, brick by brick,
like, amassing this huge number of...
whatever it is that youre doing,
just one at a time.
It just adds up over time
and multiplied by people into this huge,
massive thing.
But like really youre just doing it
so slowly, like one at a time.
If you go out in the bush,
its really not the bush anymore;
its a patchwork of logged and growing
and some of them tiny bits
of untouched forest,
but roads and roads everywhere, and
its not the bush anymore.
While I was studying forestry,
there have been parts where Im conflicted.
Why am I planting for a company
that is on unceded territory and logging?
I personally believe
all land needs to belong
to nations of those respective regions
and for a lot of people,
thats a seemingly radical concept,
but it has happened before
in other countries.
But I think we need to talk about it more
because we dont talk about it as much.
Like, what is the connection to this land?
What is our connection?
Wheres the money going?
My names Dirk Brinkman
and Ive overseen
1.4 billion trees planted,
going for next year
our 1.5 billionth tree.
Ive gone back to pine plantations
that are 12 year old plantations,
and theyre 98% dead from the pine beetle.
We are now replanting 150 million trees
that were burned by the fires
in 2017, 2018.
So Ive been a part
of a timber-centric
conifer reforestation system
that is planting
closed-canopy conifer trees.
Yes, we introduced mixed species,
microsite planting in the 70s and we--
I worked hard to make that the regulation,
and thats how we plant,
right species to the right spot,
but were planting commercial species,
which in British Columbia
are all conifers,
so were planting these
closed-canopy corridors,
fire corridors, disease corridors,
pest corridors,
that are not the way the forests were
before contact.
Before contact, the Indigenous people
managed with fire,
and they managed these areas
to create complex forests,
more biodiversity.
Now we have fires that are vast
because we have these massive extents
of closed-canopy conifer forests
that weve protected from fire
for timber value
and reforested for timber value.
It takes 100 years for a tree to grow,
a couple months for corn to grow, or
a head of lettuce takes four weeks.
It takes 100 years for a tree to
get anywhere near where you wanna cut it.
Weve raped this province.
It makes me ill sometimes how much--
you know, and Im no better.
My ancestors, they all came to this--
all loggers, all my relatives--
all my ancestors are all loggers,
and to them,
the only good tree is a stump.
Thats an old narrow saying from way back.
You find that at the Adirondack Mountains
in New York,
The best tree is a stump,
well, its all you got is stumps now.
I planted a tree in 1986.
Well, its not ready until 2038.
Or you planted a tree this season,
its not ready until 2100
or whenever its ready.
We dont know in 2100
what well be building stuff out of.
We-- maybe by that time,
you plant a million trees right here
in the next few years,
in 100 years, those things can just stay.
They can just stay there, and...
get hit by lighting, burn on their own,
or whatever happens.
We dont cut them.
Weve figured some other way to build
thats less impactive, right?
So no, I dont--
I think every tree we can plant
and every tree that we can bring up
to be a big conifer, big proud conifer
is, its the best we can do.
This is a cut block.
Sometimes they look like this,
and other times they look like this.
This is your shovel,
these are your bags,
and this is your life.
We are digging holes inside the Earth
(yeah we are)
Eventually well ask, what was it worth?
Oh, you get your salary tomorrow,
but work for it today
And you know that us humans wont delay.
They are sewing buttons on our eyes
Impossible to see through their disguise.
Oh, they only hand a fork to us
once weve jumped through their hoop
And after have the nerve to serve us soup
We are turning forests into chairs
So we have a place for our derrieres
Woah, watch our standards rising fast
That time has come at last
When we all need a place to place our ass
We are looking up from down below
Eventually we become a circus show
Well, people with cucumber eyes
are taking baths of mud
So they forget that theyre just bones
and blood
The gardener is not the flowers boss
(no he aint)
But hearing this, he might feel at a loss
Well, if he sends his camera crew
and acts like he is hurt
Remember even flowers need some dirt
So if youre digging holes
inside the ground
I hope one day youll tell me
what you found
But if youre just chipping at rocks
and you cant find your next meal
Remember we are friends through this ordeal
Remember we are friends
Yeah, remember we are friends
Yeah, remember youve got friends
in this ordeal
Hey, rock on!
a tree must first be cut down.
A piece of paper is signed,
a road is carved into the bush.
Before a tree can be planted,
the logging debris must be burned.
Seedlings are sprayed with pesticides;
wrapped in plastic;
packed into non-recyclable,
wax-coated boxes
and then transported across the country
in refrigerated trucks.
And of course,
before any tree is planted in Canada,
there must be a workforce
prepared plant them.
This is that story.
You get paid a piece rate.
That means you get paid per tree.
Prices range from as low as 10 cents
to as high as 35 cents per tree.
The average worker will typically plant
anywhere between 1000
to 4000 trees in a day.
This is a cut block.
Thats where wood comes from.
Sometimes they look like this,
and other times they look like this.
This is your shovel,
these are your bags,
this is where you sleep,
and this is how you get to work.
Work is seasonal. Thats because trees
are best planted in the spring.
For most planters,
a season lasts two to three months,
but some people do work
up to 9 months of the year
by travelling to different regions
and altitudes across the country.
Breakfast is served at 6:00,
you hop in the truck at 7:00,
you work 8-10 hours a day
and theres only one thing you need to do.
So I started planting
after my second year of university, and...
I kind of first went into it just thinking
it was an iconic summer job to do
and didn't really know what else.
I was living of my friends couch,
and I was just like kinda floating around,
doing like landscaping work, I was like...
Went to university and then dropped out
and then went travelling, and I was like...
3 grand in debt, and I was like, "What am I
doing with my life? I have no idea"
I was justlike so lost.
Like, I was just-- I was just lost, man.
I was just looking for
some direction in life.
I had a cousin who...
She was wild and way cooler than me,
and she went planting and told me
all of these hilarious stories,
and it sounded like she was
living a lot better than I was.
I was doing a Bachelor of Science;
I was in my first year;
I was super depressed,
and I was just kinda lost and confused.
And, you know,
my parents asked me many times,
Are you sure this is what you wanna do?
My mom actually said to me,
"You know that tree planting is all, like,
sex and drugs and partying,"
and I was like, Yes, sign me up,
because I was 20.
I remember the cook
had a really hard time
keeping everyone off
the kitchen bus,
because for some reason on party night,
everyone wanted to go in there and
take their clothes off
and dance around.
The parties there are great because
theres just-- theres no rules.
Theres no limitations.
Theres no parents, right?
Theres no cops. So,
they go to all hours of dawn, you know?
All freaking night. Anything goes.
You know, thats part of the work,
is you work super hard and just let loose.
My names Shami,
and Ive planted 150,000 trees.
I sucked at tree planting,
and it was hard. I was the kid
who skipped PE in high school.
My first day planting,
it had snowed the night before,
like a solid like 5 centimetre,
and so we got to the block,
you know, were looking out the window
and theres snow everywhere,
and they said, Yeah, theyre like,
theres too much snow, we cant go plant,
and so like our first day
was canceled basically, you know?
Learning how to plant a tree is simple,
but planting them perfectly
while moving quickly and efficiently
takes years to master.
Basically you open a hole,
you put the tree in it,
and then you close the hole.
But its not always that easy.
You have to maintain a standard of quality
to meet changing contract specifications.
This is a plot cord.
Its used to measure a 3.9m circular section
of your land called a plot.
These are tree checkers.
They will be making sure
youve planted your trees properly
and with the right spacing.
The spacing they want could be any number
between 4 to 12 trees in a plot,
and its your job
to know how to alter the spacing
in order to plant what is
required,
and to do it consistently
throughout your many hectares of workspace.
Planting too many
or too few trees in the plot
is considered a fault.
A fault is also
any tree thats not planted perfectly.
They cant be too shallow;
they cant be too deep.
Not too tight, not too loose.
But most importantly and above all else,
every tree must be planted
in mineral soil.
That summer after my first planting season,
I went hitchhiking
from Saskatchewan to Vancouver Island,
and I got stuck at ,like, a...
nudist hippie commune.
I would say I definitely fell out
of the Catholic religion
while I was planting, so...
just the fall
after my first planting season,
I bought a sweater that said,
Smoke meth and hail Satan,
and that was someone who was like...
in nursing school and like super Catholic
and very conservative thinking.
To do that in like
the span of three months, like,
something happened.
Planting.
My second year, like we had just
a lot of crazy things happen.
So I ended up getting...
frostbite in three fingers
and was borderline hypothermic.
So we climbed up into this skinny
little pine tree, or whatever it was,
and the moose was like
butting the bottom of the tree
and hes in the top like swaying
back and forth screaming bloody murder.
I was between a mom and its cub,
and so she like false charged
and like snapping her jaw
As she paws me,
I feel her rough pad
come down on my head,
down my cheek, and then slap me
in the collarbone and chest.
And Im looking to my side,
and theres just...
a couple hundred foot cliff
into this ravine
and Im starting to shake.
So we had to stay til like 8:00 at night,
and there was this rainstorm
so like, the helicopter
couldnt come and pick us up,
and like we had to finish all the trees.
Were like crying in the pouring rain.
I hit my first wasp nest,
got stung like 6 or 7 times on my leg.
One guy broke his ankle,
had toget like escorted out.
So Im like super drowsy,
I have no idea whats going on,
I guess like someone fainted
and another guy got a nosebleed
from like the CO2 gas,
and like everyone
was getting headaches.
And then we got like evacuated,
and we had to--
we actually still planted
the rest of the day at a different place,
and I was like, Are you kidding me?
we all just went through this
horrible, traumatic experience
and we still have to finish planting?
But ,like, I guess thats planting.
My names Brent Fokkens
and I planted maybe 300,000 trees.
It was therapeutic.
I think I was harbouring a lot of...
a lot of emotional stress and pain,
like, within my body
and that physical exertion
brought those emotions up
and kind of allowed me
to work through them.
Growing up in a small town,
being a gay guy wasnt easy.
I was using 3 to 6 grams of cocaine a week
and drinking heavily.
Id become so volatile, so toxic,
that friendships were...
kind of eroded and I was alone.
And I needed to, like,
just be by myself
and sit with myself
and reflect on myself.
And tree planting,
you get a lot of time to do that.
To be out, alone
with your thoughts,
planting trees,
humbled by a huge bear
or a huge moose
thinking, This could kill me
at any second
you know, realizing that like
Im actually very small,
it is a healing experience,
and were alone with
our psychology
to unpeel this, like,
onion of unresolved traumas
that just comes to the surface.
And theres nobody around watching us
so that we can just cry.
you know? We just let it out. Like, this is
the, you know, normal place in a lot
of planting camps. You know, like
Oh, you didnt cry yet? you know?
Like, You should cry.
You should really let it out, man.
I think honestly its because of like
the lack of stimulation,
like, youre so open to
whats going on like inside
that you can just like
feel all these things
that you normally dont have time
to feel in the real world, right?
People crying on the block, like,
half the time its not even about
the planting; its about like,
you know, your dad didnt love you enough
or whatever,
and it just comes out
when youre in this, like,
sensory deprivation area.
Ive seen grown men, like,
burst into tears
and then...
petite women just crush everyone
and be the most bad-ass thing.
Its, like, it's such an equalizer,
tree planting.
Its just whatever preconception
about strength and capability
you think you have, its like...
see people on the block
because youll see their true nature
if you see them tree planting.
You have no one
but your own thoughts out there,
and if youre not at peace,
it's gonna come out on the block,
so being able to sort of control--
like conquer your mind, I think,
is probably the hardest thing.
And I think thats the--
you know, being efficient
and being physically fit
are really important things,
but being able to actually be in control
of your thoughts and emotions,
thats the hardest part of tree planting.
If you wanna make any money,
like, you cant give up,
and the only thing to do
is keep planting trees.
And its kind of a metaphor for life
because in life, its the same way.
It doesnt matter, like, what youre
dealing with or what youre going through,
its eventually gonna pass,
and all you have to do is, like,
put one foot in front of the other
and put your shovel in the ground.
Were out there to do a job
that needs to be done.
When a forest is cut in Canada,
trees have to be replanted,
and thats part
of the cost of the wood.
What were doing is...
planting trees
for commercial harvest, right?
Like, its already--
its been cycled through at least once
when youre replanting a block,
and its not for the Earth at that point,
its just for commercial consumption.
Ultimately, youre just part of the system
of what, like,
makes destroying trees possible.
So its like youre kind of
a cog in the system.
Planters get jaded right away,
especially like first
and second year planters.
We find out that, Oh, these trees
are just gonna be cut down again."
"Oh man, were not
environmentalists at all;
were just another cog in the logging
machine.
This is bullshit.
And then people get jaded.
And then its like cool to be jaded by it,
so that when a non-planter can be like,
Good for you for planting those
trees.
then like the jaded third year vet
is just like,
Yeah, but theyre all
gonna get cut down again,
you know, trying to just be the pessimist.
But, you know, Ive been that guy.
Ive been like, You know,
its all just gonna get cut down again.
Its not that good.
But, uh
the end, its like--
well, yeah, its...
it's still something to be proud of.
I mean, we all get jaded about it, but...
in the end, were doing
the better part of the industry, I think.
Im proud to be the guy
that puts em back
rather than the guy
that cuts em down.
I remember returning to
one of the blocks that we had planted,
and just seeing them, like,
sprout a little bit,
and it just like hit me, like,
this is real, like, this is happening.
Like, were growing something.
So, its weird to think that in our path
these just giants will sprout up behind us.
And oftentimes, were not gonna get
the opportunity to see those
develop and become the forests
that are in northern BC or Alberta
or wherever youre planting,
but we leave a lot of
really incredible growth in our wake
and I think thats something that were
certainly like incredibly proud of.
Youre not learning anything.
Youre not growing in any way.
Just using your body, right?
Definitely cant do this forever.
It could set you back, right?
Just years of nothing, really.
Well, originally it was to
pay for university.
I made it through that.
Now Ive just been doing it to ski.
Yeah, you get nice things and...
afford to go on cool trips
and whatnot, but...
I dont know.
How long is that worth it?
My name is Emma Power
and I planted roughly 450,000 trees.
There was like a party night
that went terribly wrong for me,
and I really--
I wanted to tell someone about that,
and I did.
It is really challenging
because most of the time...
the people in charge are men.
You complain to someone,
and if youre lucky
that persons good enough
to do something about it. But...
I personally was at a camp
that had a rapist in it
and he wasnt getting fired
because he planted the most trees.
That is insane,
and that did not make
my experience planting very great.
Um. In fact, it taught me
how to face
really challenging situations emotionally
and grow from that.
I think the fact that
tree planting is an environment
where people are isolated
and its majority male dominated,
it can leave women really vulnerable.
Boundaries can so easily get crossed,
especially when theres
drinking and drugs involved.
You look around
and you see your friends,
and like you think,
Oh, that wont happen,
but it does happen and...
its fact. Its out there;
its happening;
and thats like the first step
to making a change is just like awareness.
I didnt go down this road back here.
Is there any down that one,
- this road?
- Yeah.
- Is there some down there?
- Yeah, you can cruise down there.
- I just need a few more trees.
- OK
Yeah, I started crew bossing
in my third season.
My foreman in my first year--
she was my foreman for the entire season.
She was so motivating.
She was so stoked, she was like...
happy but assertive
and knew what she wanted,
and she was my motivation.
I was like, Im gonna be like her one day.
Shes dope.
Hey if you come down to our...
[radio static]
Copy
It was my foreman in my rookie year
that told me
about the three rules of tree planting;
etiquette, ethics and empathy.
When sharing land,
its considered good etiquette
to leave your flagger tape in a high spot
so that the person following behind
can see where youve planted your trees.
If you have to pass by another planter,
take a moment and leave some space
to empathize,
and remember that they, too,
are a competitive and overworked person
who just skipped lunch.
Ethics in tree planting
is all about the cream.
Good land means money,
and bad land is self explanatory,
so when you have someone
that goes out of their way
to plant the good parts
while avoiding the bad parts,
they might as well be taking money
straight off your paycheque.
Theres something meditative
about the posture of planting
and the repetition of it,
and it gets you into that...
open-minded space.
I do remember planting once
where the light was coming
through the canopy of the trees
and making...
spots of light on the ground
through the shade,
and I just planted a tree
on every spot that was light.
And it was really creamy ground,
so I just thought that was...
working in-- with the universe
a little bit more than normal.
But its sure nice to feel like
youre connected to the land
rather than against it, you know?
If you can get into that mindset out there
where you're working with things
and loose, and
and... uh, kind of
a bit of reverence going on maybe almost,
then youre in a good spot.
Once you like shut everything down,
the pain, the torrents, the weather,
and you just focus on;
one more tree,
one more tree, one more tree,
and it becomes so meditative and peaceful,
and theres that point you reach
where you genuinely love
the act of tree planting.
I enjoy the heavy weight;
I enjoy stepping over obstacles.
I like the rhythm of it.
I like when my shovel
just finds the spot.
So youre doing everything perfectly,
and at the end of the day,
youve put in 3,000 trees, 2,000 trees,
something that
at the beginning of the season
or when you began planting
seemed impossible,
you know, what is being in flow state,
shutting the frontal cortex
and having your whole nervous system
be your brain,
your system is all in the highest state
of joy and satisfaction,
but your experience is completely strange.
The afternoon goes by
in seemingly five minutes,
but the state of being in that place
seems timeless.
Well, thats flow state,
and its only in flow state
that you can manage that.
So, we have an industry
thats in the business of extreme sports
at an Olympic level.
Its kind of an extreme sport
where you put your body at risk
for the reward.
You test yourself
and see what youre capable of. You--
its extreme, extreme repetition.
You get good at it only by doing that thing
thousands and thousands
and thousands of times in a day.
My names Nick Holatko
and Ive probably planted
about 600,000 trees
to three quarters of a million.
This would be a pretty bad day
for sure, yeah.
I mean, days like this where pretty much
you wake up in the rain
and it just rains nonstop,
I actually prefer those days
to the days that are like on and off rain
because you can just
get out of the truck,
put your rain gear on, and
you know youre set for the day.
But when the conditions are changing
and one minute its hot
you gotta take your jacket off,
and then it starts pouring,
or you forget your jacket and youre like
200 trees in the back of your piece,
those are-- those are the days I like less
than these ones.
I dont mind these.
I think Im gonna be moving on
to other things in the next year here.
Yeah, I went back to school for--
to get a real estate license,
trainings license,
so Im working on that right now
in the evenings and on days off, and...
yeah, kind of prepared a bit
of an exit strategy after I--
yeah, I think Ive had enough.
Its a classic planting curse,
you have lots of money in August;
you spend it frivolously;
and by the time April comes around,
youre poor
and youre just like,
Whens planting starting?
I need money.
Many of my friends talk about this,
its easy to stay stuck
because its so fun.
The next thing you know
youre in your mid-20s
and you want some more consistency
in your life.
You know, living out of a suitcase
was great for a long time, but...
yeah, Im not really into it any more.
Im excited to grow out of it, yeah.
Ive just-- of my god,
Ive got so much love in my heart
right now just talking about it.
You know? Just thinking about
all the times--
Ive loved so many people tree planting.
Just my friends, romantic love, oh my god.
Yeah, it really...
really lights a fire in you, you know?
Sometimes really good,
sometimes really bad.
I cant wait to go back.
Here I'm talking about
how I cant wait to get out of it
you know, have some more consistency
in my life, but...
Yeah
Thats how it gets you,
you know, feeling like this,
feeling so happy and proud, and...
Yeah, I can't wait.
After my sixth interior year,
I came to the coast.
Yeah, the coast is
a totally different ballgame.
I swear Ive developed
like some minor PTSD from the coast.
Ill send four people in
to plant this one day.
Cover this area
with about 400 trees each.
But it sounds like
Im going to be box dropping.
- He said it might be a little too foggy.
- OK
They have to walk across this gully
and go to another central spot here
where theyve--
Ive put trees with a helicopter.
Their lunch is there and their water,
and then they cover off the rest
of this area, straight up the hill.
So theyre going almost
250 metres straight uphill
when theyre covering these areas.
My mom,
she planted while she was pregnant
with me until like 6 months.
She could probably
tell you more about that.
There was a really bad weather day,
and I was pregnant,
and I was planting,
and I came up to bag up again,
and there are all these guys
that were sitting in truck
because it was too cold to plant,
and they were like, Oh.
They kind of got out of the truck
because they didnt want to be, you know,
embarrassed by this pregnant person
planting
when they were not.
My names Erin Bros
and Ive planted roughly
750,000 trees.
My name is Deborah Hirkala,
and Ive planted,
Id say, approximately
three quarters of a million trees.
I shift from living in a tent
to now like--
like, I wont sleep on the ground anymore.
Theres sort of this like progression
of like tree planting
that often happens, especially when
youve been in the game
for like 6, 7, 8,
and many more years than that.
You know, you eventually
stop sleeping in a tent.
Like, theres not very many people I know
that have been planting
for as long as I have
that still sleep in a tent.
I remember having a dream
where I was sitting
at a coffee shop
in like some urban city
environment setting,
and then I just, like,
looked in a reflection
and I was in full tree planting clothes,
like bags and everything,
dirt all over my face.
And that was like--
I woke up from that dream thinking,
like, This has definitely
changed my life,
and this is kind of like
a new thing that Im taking on
thats gonna define who I am
for the next many years.
You know, I cant lie,
I took it on; I was proud.
I would go back to the city and Id say,
like Im a tree planter, with pride.
And what people took out of that,
I dont know.
Like, some of them might have been like,
Oh god, another tree planter.
But I said it with like,
Im a f--king tree planter.
Like, this is who I am, right?
Like, I belong to a community.
I belong to a culture of people
who all share like a common--
a common ground.
Weve suffered the same things.
Even if it was in different areas of Canada
on a different block
on a completely different day,
the experiences are all so similar of
like what you go through collectively.
You end up becoming friends
with the weirdest people,
and then you become like
proud to know those people
because theyre so weird.
And its made me more accepting.
Its taught me that Im-- that like
I used to be a really judgemental person,
and I used to have a lot of attitudes
that were wrong.
And I think Ive changed those attitudes,
just from the exposure Ive gotten
to the variety of people
that go tree planting.
My names Josh Lichti
and I think Ive planted
somewhere around 1.1 million.
So yes, where Im at right now,
Im thinking if I dont
start making moves now,
I will be stuck in--
I will be stuck in planting lifestyle.
Not that theres anything wrong with that
because theres some really great people
whove put in 20 years, 30 years,
that just love this,
and they will never quit. I just--
I just dont know if Im gonna be happy
if I keep going.
And thats what I dont wanna be.
I dont wanna be the crusty old guy
thats just,
Ive been planting for 40 years
and the tree price
has stayed the same, argh.
I dont wanna be that guy
who just goes out there and just pounds
and smoking 20 cigarettes,
bitching about the land.
If I keep going, Im gonna be that guy.
I gotta get out.
I gotta get out now.
Anything to say to the people?
Earth walkers, you know?
Whether youre corporeal or ethereal
or ascending, or--
were all in this thing together.
Thats the-- its important
that you know that.
Were all in this thing together.
So, lets care for each other.
Because that shared consciousness thing
is for real. Thats a for real thing.
And when we are in this thing together,
so...
Boss mans coming. Production matters.
See ya guys.
Im Fijona Brinkman
and I have planted 600,000 trees.
Dave Guise, Ive planted
probably close to 2 million trees.
Normally like youre dating, and
youre gonna see the person at, you know,
periodic intervals for months and months
and months, and
people maybe kinda put up
a bit of a facade or whatever,
but, you know, tree planting,
it strips all the facades away
- very quickly, so...
- Yeah, theres no facade out there.
Its impossible.
We got these super dorky helmets on;
sometimes theres safety glasses.
Weve got like massive hi-vis vests.
Theres like almost nothing sexy
about the clothes
that were wearing out there.
And the bush dumps.
Dont even get me started
on the bush dumps.
- Actually,
- No.
trying to deal with bathroom stuff
in the forest
is a really big problem.
Yeah, theres no outhouses out there,
people.
Theres no outhouses.
A raspberry.
Yum, yum. Just one.
Oh well.
My name is Jim Courchesne
and Ive planted about 2 million trees.
This is basically the clear-cut
at the end of my street.
I planted these trees
about 15 years ago.
Yeah, when I moved here,
this was all beautiful forest,
and then they logged it.
Over the years of planting out of home,
Id come back after work,
and you have a few trees left
in your bags, and--
you know, and when you have this place
that you love
that was a beautiful forest,
it was very satisfying to do.
And some of them have already been cut down
or moved or mowed away, but...
but a lot survive.
Theres pine and fir
and spruce and cedars and...
and theres a forest.
Actually I taught my second--
my oldest who is planting now, I...
I showed him how to plant in here,
like before he came out the first time.
We like had a few bundles of trees,
so I told him about, yeah, spacing
and all that in here, yeah.
Made this a bit of a forest again, yeah.
Thats the best foreman on Earth
right there.
(in French) My name is Alain Belanger
and Im about 61,000 trees away
from 3 million.
You know, probably my proudest moment
was to see my 16-year-old daughter working,
and then it be sleeting, and it was like--
the snow would accumulate on the ground
and it would come back and accumulate
and come back,
and then I had a crew of people
working at the same time,
and then they all came in to work
in the truck,
then I would say,
OK, well here, just drive and
just gonna go and check on someone,
and then wed come back
and we stopped, seeing her--
you know, she's...
kind of smaller frame and so on--
and all these bigger guys, older guys,
and just go,
How you doing, Willow?
and shes like,
Im doing good.
They said Are you cold? Shes, No,
I just keep on working and I stay warm.
And I felt pretty proud of her
at that point, yeah.
Names Thomas Polley
and Ive planted 3 million trees.
Yeah, its probably primarily
a young persons game,
but some of us old guys,
we get addicted to it.
The sort of pain--
love and pain--
was it, love to hate the job?
Something like that, I dont know.
Sometimes you just love the job.
One, two, and three.
These things, they come in threes.
Twos and threes.
Phone, wallet, keys.
My names Erik Walsh
and Ive planted 7 million trees.
Yeah, its kind of ridiculous really.
Like...
Im of two minds about it.
Like, it seems like a life
kind of wasted in one way
you know, when you think of what else
a person could have achieved, you know,
with that much effort
into something, you know?
But at the same time, its kinda cool.
Oh yeah, thats the sort of thing I was
thinking about today,
you know, just how the trees come out
of your bag like one at a time.
Like, you bag em up
and theyre so heavy,
and then its just like
youre trying to plant them out
and just one at a time
its getting like imperceptibly lighter.
But then eventually, like,
thats the last one
and it just weighs nothing,
and then its like
you just do that over and over again
every day, and it just--
it reminds you of like these massive...
like, coordinated projects,
like building the pyramids
or some ridiculous thing,
you know, where you just have
countless workers just like
toiling away slowly, like, brick by brick,
like, amassing this huge number of...
whatever it is that youre doing,
just one at a time.
It just adds up over time
and multiplied by people into this huge,
massive thing.
But like really youre just doing it
so slowly, like one at a time.
If you go out in the bush,
its really not the bush anymore;
its a patchwork of logged and growing
and some of them tiny bits
of untouched forest,
but roads and roads everywhere, and
its not the bush anymore.
While I was studying forestry,
there have been parts where Im conflicted.
Why am I planting for a company
that is on unceded territory and logging?
I personally believe
all land needs to belong
to nations of those respective regions
and for a lot of people,
thats a seemingly radical concept,
but it has happened before
in other countries.
But I think we need to talk about it more
because we dont talk about it as much.
Like, what is the connection to this land?
What is our connection?
Wheres the money going?
My names Dirk Brinkman
and Ive overseen
1.4 billion trees planted,
going for next year
our 1.5 billionth tree.
Ive gone back to pine plantations
that are 12 year old plantations,
and theyre 98% dead from the pine beetle.
We are now replanting 150 million trees
that were burned by the fires
in 2017, 2018.
So Ive been a part
of a timber-centric
conifer reforestation system
that is planting
closed-canopy conifer trees.
Yes, we introduced mixed species,
microsite planting in the 70s and we--
I worked hard to make that the regulation,
and thats how we plant,
right species to the right spot,
but were planting commercial species,
which in British Columbia
are all conifers,
so were planting these
closed-canopy corridors,
fire corridors, disease corridors,
pest corridors,
that are not the way the forests were
before contact.
Before contact, the Indigenous people
managed with fire,
and they managed these areas
to create complex forests,
more biodiversity.
Now we have fires that are vast
because we have these massive extents
of closed-canopy conifer forests
that weve protected from fire
for timber value
and reforested for timber value.
It takes 100 years for a tree to grow,
a couple months for corn to grow, or
a head of lettuce takes four weeks.
It takes 100 years for a tree to
get anywhere near where you wanna cut it.
Weve raped this province.
It makes me ill sometimes how much--
you know, and Im no better.
My ancestors, they all came to this--
all loggers, all my relatives--
all my ancestors are all loggers,
and to them,
the only good tree is a stump.
Thats an old narrow saying from way back.
You find that at the Adirondack Mountains
in New York,
The best tree is a stump,
well, its all you got is stumps now.
I planted a tree in 1986.
Well, its not ready until 2038.
Or you planted a tree this season,
its not ready until 2100
or whenever its ready.
We dont know in 2100
what well be building stuff out of.
We-- maybe by that time,
you plant a million trees right here
in the next few years,
in 100 years, those things can just stay.
They can just stay there, and...
get hit by lighting, burn on their own,
or whatever happens.
We dont cut them.
Weve figured some other way to build
thats less impactive, right?
So no, I dont--
I think every tree we can plant
and every tree that we can bring up
to be a big conifer, big proud conifer
is, its the best we can do.
This is a cut block.
Sometimes they look like this,
and other times they look like this.
This is your shovel,
these are your bags,
and this is your life.
We are digging holes inside the Earth
(yeah we are)
Eventually well ask, what was it worth?
Oh, you get your salary tomorrow,
but work for it today
And you know that us humans wont delay.
They are sewing buttons on our eyes
Impossible to see through their disguise.
Oh, they only hand a fork to us
once weve jumped through their hoop
And after have the nerve to serve us soup
We are turning forests into chairs
So we have a place for our derrieres
Woah, watch our standards rising fast
That time has come at last
When we all need a place to place our ass
We are looking up from down below
Eventually we become a circus show
Well, people with cucumber eyes
are taking baths of mud
So they forget that theyre just bones
and blood
The gardener is not the flowers boss
(no he aint)
But hearing this, he might feel at a loss
Well, if he sends his camera crew
and acts like he is hurt
Remember even flowers need some dirt
So if youre digging holes
inside the ground
I hope one day youll tell me
what you found
But if youre just chipping at rocks
and you cant find your next meal
Remember we are friends through this ordeal
Remember we are friends
Yeah, remember we are friends
Yeah, remember youve got friends
in this ordeal
Hey, rock on!