August Work

[Mike]

Each season I look to work through August; and thus far, I've been unsuccessful. I heard a rumour that the company I'm with may not be able to offer me anything in August, so I'm just trying to get a sense of who is working through all or part of August, and thus worth contacting. I'm pretty much always willing to consider anything.

Anyways, if anyone knows of anyone that will be working through August, I'll see what I can do in regards to getting on. I already have a sense that Rhino will have a late season; I tried getting on with them last year, but sadly they hadn't lost enough people to Shambalah to be hiring. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Scooter]

Rhino just got a contract at the Kemess Gold Mine that I was bidding on. I did it last August. Decent contract. Mining camp, full housing in bunkhouses, good food in a cafeteria. Unlimited chocolate milk. Kind of a nice relaxing end to a season, good place to have some fun at the end. However, once you're in there (it's a nine hour drive from civilization), you're stuck there for good because they don't want to let people fly in and out. So take lots of supplies, if you know what I mean. You can't get stuff to smoke or beverages there, so bring lots with you to last you for several weeks. The planting was hit and miss. The Waste Rock Dump was hard as a fucking rock. Oh wait, they asked us to plant on a mountain of rocks - go figure. Other parts were ok, and one of the Borrow areas was pure sand, and we planted daisies in it. I'm not kidding - they were baby daisies and Milk Vetch and other plants. Enormous plugs though, same as 615's so we could only bag up with about 70 at a time. But yeah, it's not the kind of contract that you can quit on easily, so be mentally prepared to stay the course if you get onto the job. Not really a good contract for inexperienced planters, but I would imagine that they'll have all vets for this one - we did it with planters who all had 4+ years of experience and managed ok. And it's 460,000 trees/plants (plus teabags), so it should be a decent amount of work.

[mel_eff]

Sounds like fun....except that Rhino is doing it.

RUN.

[Coaster]

There will be lots of planting on the coast this summer/fall. A number of these contracts will start in mid to late August and there should be work until October. You can expect the usual suspects to have the work - Brinkman-Bivouac-Sitka-Wagner-Evergreen-Timberline. Bid results don't usually start shaking down until early July.

[jdtesluk]

Lots of work Coaster? That would be a great change from last year.

[Coaster]

Lots is a relative term. There's definitely more fall planting than last year. There was considerably more logging over the past year and companies are pretty much planting within a year of logging. It's hard to have the whole picture but most licensees have bigger programs than usual this fall.

Bids will be heading upwards (if sense prevails) as there will be stiff competion for planters this fall and certainly big time for 2012. Forecasts are that there will be a 20% increase in trees for 2012. 2012 is looking very positive with all nurseries in B.C. full. Both contractors and planters should be making up for some lean years. My advice is to be very picky in who you work for next year. There will be some very good money to be made if you are careful about who you work for.

[korno]

I agree the above statement. The contract I usually work on is 750,000 for the fall 2011 and 1.2 million for fall 2012, which is a fairly big fall coastal contract especially on the north coast. The demand seems to be still for old growth fir and cedar which tends to be higher in elevation.

[newforest]

have bag, will travel. 100% quality. no papers though.

[Mike]

Hah, newforest, I saw the post and was figuring you'd try to convince me to come to the states.

The problem is that I'm a student; so I can't work past September 1st, but I want to extend my season through August...and I don't have prior costal experience, so I imagine it unlikely that a Costal company would hire me to work the last week or two of August.

[newforest]

OK kids, this thread seems as good as any....estimate this one along with me:

scalp to bare soil 4' x 8' (about 1.2m x 2.4m); plant 32 plugs (herbaceous species) per plot at 1'x1'; water them in; take GPS point in center of plot. some plots up to 1/2 mile from vehicle access; some closer

I already have the contract and know my estimate, just curious what yours would be. I'm probably going to game the contract by doing all the scalping first and then planting on the next rainy day so I don't have to hump in any water.

After that, fence the plot in......this was added to the work later, for an additional price. I just threw a dart at the board on that.

I'm definitely buying a wagon for this one. Anyone know of a good four-wheel drive, independent suspension wagon with off-road tires? A/C and iPod line-in would be nice too. No motorized access allowed so as not to disturb the vegetation that the Karner Blue Butterfly (discovered in the 1950s by the Nabokov of 'Lolita' fame) depends on....

[krahn]

How big are the trees?

Looks like a lot of work for you. But if you set them up, and GPS'd the plots for them afterward, well, I'd probably plant that for fairly cheap.

[newforest]

they're not trees....small herbaceous plugs. I bid it at $37.23/plot but I know I left a ton on the table bidding against high-end small-scale native plant nurseries who use college kids driving brand new 3/4 ton pickups to do all of their super high $$$ "restoration" work. Everything else I bid on this year against rednecks running Mexicans I lost by tons and tons.

Anyhow, I think I could do at least a plot/hour. Turns out to be September work, starting the first Wednesday at my choice.

Out in Montana right now, running chainsaw upslopes at 7K feet altitude. Intense, but a very good job that I would have never found without this website.