Impact Reforestation

[aaron]

Any one have any info on these guys?

[Greg M.]

they have a website.

http://www.impactreforestation.com/

[Gual]

I planted a spring season for them in 2009. They are based in Campbell River but they have alot of work in Powell River, Knight Inlet and Butte Inlet. They bought a barge recently I heard so they aren't going anywhere. They kinda built their reputation on doing the "crazy shit" that no one else would take. I think they may have cut back a bit on their planting because they don't like taking work where they make no money.

There was one rough WFP contract when I was there and they definately did not do that again this year. They have a good relationship with Island Timberlands- they were 4th down on the bid sheet for the contract I was on. So you could make some good money. I was making 300-350 for 8-9 hour days (the work happened to be close to town) but the more experienced coastal vets were making well over 400.

They do 8-9 months straight of bushing and spraying. They mostly have local Campbell River guys for that work but some planters filter over to that end of things after the planting is done. We had 45 planting days in the spring and that year there may have been 14 days in the fall.

It's a small company but if you get along with them then its a good deal.

[pabllo]

Jake Soloway and Greg Kingston run it ...good solid guys worked for them for almost 14 years .. would work for them again anytime .

[aaron]

I planted with these guys in spring 2012, it was a fairly positive experience.

We started march 6th and i finished april 25th and got about 28 days, i left a few days early and the rest of the crew probably got about 32-35. Prices were slightly above average for the coast, about 15-20% more(based on 3 coastal companies i've worked with) and have vacation pay added on top(paid out quarterly). The crew OFA lv 3 gets free camp costs, which is pretty sweet. Pay every 2 weeks with full pay stub, direct deposit.

We started with i think 7 or 8 planters and were never more than 12. Pretty organized for the most part. They have quite a few small contracts, lots of moves. Did about 10 days of large bare root planting, a few days of alder planting. the biggest contract was with interfor which we worked on for about ~20 days or so, aboard the lasqueti daughters. The heli logged work was the worst at 28 c plus vacay, but there was only a day of it. camp costs were 25$ on the barge and 15$ in motels. we stayed in some pretty nice motels, and one not so nice motel in port alberni.

There was a stormy night where the anchor broke off and the barge was adrift, and we had to be rescued by the coast guard. Didn't really feel like my life was in danger, but was definitely annoying being kept up all night waiting for the rescue. All in all i felt like jake and the captain handled it well. Ended up in a nearby logging camp for the next day and ate/slept like loggers which was nice.

I had plans to work with them again in 2013, but they are cutting back to a month of planting with one truck, so I am moving on to a new company that can offer me at least 2 months. Would recommend them to anyone whos alternative is working for any of the big companies on the coast(20+ planters).

[Scooter]

Follow-up to the above:

Although they have no spots for planters because they've got such a small program and are already hired, they also do a lot of saw work, both brush and chain saws, for many months each year. Someone who prefers brushing might find it worthwhile to talk to them.

And here's a link to a video that I made while I was on that contract on the barge, although I was only there for a short time at the end:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=FQ54dy84i2k

[Scooter]

For those who have questions about the barge, that discussion is in a separate thread in the Safety forum:

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=66437