Seedlings to saplings.

So I met Harry.  Harry is a hippy type Canadian, he has the biggest tobacco stained  moustache I have ever seen, he's about fifty and does a yoga class with Lyn.   When Harry is not practising yoga or dancing with his partner Dixie he is working for an outfit providing the government with fir and Douglas pine saplings for the re-forestation program here in Canada.

I found the whole thing fascinating.  For many years the government have been selling square kilometres of forest to loggers to feed the huge demand for timber without thinking of the consequences.  So the previous government changed the rules a bit to make sure that for every mature tree cut down, 3 new saplings must be planted.  This ruling paved the way for a new industry and this particular outfit supplies 18 million saplings per year.

Harry painted a picture of a group of caring conservationists that lovingly nurture these saplings from seedlings, carefully monitoring their progress until they are ready to be sent out into the bush for planting.  "You should get involved man" he told me. 

I like the sound of this I thought and signed up for a month of part time nurturing, also they pay $100 per day!

What I saw at 7am in the cold dark morning was slightly different from the image I brought with me.

Maria, the 5ft Philippino boss lady gave me a pair of gloves and took me into a huge hangar like building full of conveyor belts and noisy machinery. Drowning out all the mechanical din was Sun FM at a million decibels deafening all the estimated 80 or so workers.  

Let me briefly go through the process of a sapling.  Seedlings are planted in polystyrene trays containing 60 small pots of peat. They are lined up outside for 18 months by which time they are no longer seedlings but saplings about 4 inches high.

In November the trays are fed into the factory along a conveyor belt until the trays are turned onto their side when a machine brutally punches out the peat and sapling onto another belt. They are then fed to many different belts until they find a person who will grade, trim or reject.  The next person will take 10 saplings on their sides and build a pyramid now known as a cluster so that the next person at the end of the belt can pick up the cluster and wrap the earthy end in selothane, heat seal the join and place onto another belt for packing into boxes.

My first job was to wrap clusters of saplings for which Maria gave me about 4 minutes instruction. Easy enough, grab a cluster from the belt, place on a steel tray, wrap in selothane 3 times, drop onto the heated tray to seal and drop onto the next belt. No problem....except they come down the belt every 6 seconds! If I miss one it goes in the bin and everyone cheers.....I had quite a few cheers.  Anyway, after 2 hours I got almost up to speed with some help from the two lovely ladies grading, trimming and rejecting. They watched me struggle and somehow held back a few clusters to give me some space.  Just when I thought I cracked it, Maria told me to swap with one of the lovely ladies and build sapling clusters.  So Im now facing a conveyor belt watching mini trees hurtling past me, all I have to do is arrange them pyramid style, 4 at the bottom then 3 then 2 and one on top.  All went well for a while until my left arm went all tight and my thumb locked into my palm, I had prise it back 4 times. Then I began to feel a bit hot so I removed my coat and hat. My legs began to tremble and sweat was dripping from my nose and I was about to throw up when one of the lovely ladies pushed me back from the belt. It seems vertigo caused by the moving belt had hit me hard. After a short spell in the cold fresh air and a glass of water I was back on the wrapping, away from the nasty belt.

Apparently most people are affected by this but get used to it, the thumb thing I put down to the fact my left arm is not used to such repetitive action and the tendon attached to my thumb protested and went on strike.

I managed to complete the shift and at 4.30 staggered exhausted into the truck and drove slowly home. In my time I have worked on building sites, underground in a tin mine, done lots of long police shifts through the night but I have never felt quite so tired and as empty as I did that evening.  The next day was my birthday and for the best birthday present ever, Lyn called the factory to say I had quit!

Lyn also presented me with a large bottle of Laphroaig whisky and a Chinese dinner. I slept soundly that night!

Sorry but no photos for this one.