Wildwoods

TheHamsterizer · Post by **TheHamsterizer** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 8:52 am

It's the promised land, with a catch. You would be hard pressed to find a more lucrative 3 months anywhere, but it's grueling and the conditions can be pretty hardcore... The daily average per planter is really high, but the caliber of the average planter is also high. It's a good thing Jeff has so many trees in the area, because the land gets eaten up in the blink of an eye. six person crews plant what an average twelve person crew would do. I don't know how the foremen do it, but they have it dialed.

krahn · Post by **krahn** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 7:49 pm

you're right, the foremen do have it dialed down. and it's easily the best run company i've worked for, i worked for them for a couple of shifts at the end of their season once. and afterwards i've tried to bring some of their applicable techniques to other companies, but others are stubborn in their ways. i thought with wildwoods you'd be working super long days, when in reality we rarely worked a full 8 hours, plus you always got flown in and out so i was gone from camp less time than anywhere else.

but it's not a company to go have the funnest summer. very friendly, not really any direct pressure to work your ass off, but you just know that when you're there, you going balls-to-the-walls non-stop all day and don't take breaks, you come back to camp a broken man and try to recover by morning. that was my experience anyhow. if i wanted to be a professional planter and get as rich as i could, this is where i'd stay.

Mr. Amazing · Post by **Mr. Amazing** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:49 pm

The guys sound "OK"-ish... Totally kidding! They sound amazing too!!!!!!

concerned · Post by **concerned** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:14 pm

I don't know though. Like, they sound good but isn't the whole we plant sooooo many treeeeeeeesssss every day thing a little too much to handle. I can pretty much keep pace with the best of them. Save a few mutants who I don't even consider mortal, I think I can call myself a highballer on par with the top 5% of the planting community in terms of quality and speed. But part of being a highballer is having a lot of lowballers around. That's the whole point of being better than people. In fact that is the only reason I am a highballer. Just being honest here but the only reason I work as hard as I do is because I want to be better than all of those no-sweat, no-hurt, give-me-another-diaper assholes. Having a bunch of highballers around raises the bar a little too high. I would be pressured to be better than people like myself. I would be trying to be better than myself. That's crazy!!!! fuck off!!! no way man. I'm too good. Sounds like shit man. It goes against the natural order. Respect the pecking order and you can do no wrong. These wildwood ass munchers are playing with fire. The whole system is gonna crash!!!

Mod edit: please don't turn the font to a colour that makes all of our eyes bleed.

krahn · Post by **krahn** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:01 pm

yeah if you cherish that highballer feelin', don't go plant for these guys, it's nothing but mutants.

gilkie · Post by **gilkie** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:18 pm

Pecking order aside, I plant there for the primary reason that no other company, besides maybe Zanzibar, is able to pay the bills the way Wildwoods does. That being said the people there are great too, mind you I'd be hard pressed to think of a company where the people weren't. If anyone is fortunate enough to squeak in take full advantage because it is quite the experience!

kitslam · Post by **kitslam** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:20 pm

Hi There Wildwoods might hire me this year. Im a 5th year treeplanter and this company has been suggested to me on a few occasions now. Can anyone give me more information on it. They havent been answering the phone number i got on their website.

Some questions:

is it true that you cook your own food and cut your own blocks? rumor has it

you work 8 hours usually? and how many trees do the top 5 highballers usually put in during this time? and how much per tree? equaling how much a day on average?
my average last season was 500 but we also worked 9-10 hours a day at 10 cents a tree average

Number of planters?
good quality community?
lowground with lots of bugs?...gotta love them bugs

how many in a bundle? how many in a box? average bag up?

..??..??
thats should be good for now
Cheers

jono · Post by **jono** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 8:09 am

Mr. Amazing · Post by **Mr. Amazing** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:26 pm

Last year it was about 30 planters at the start, then it peaked at about 42 early August, then a gradual culling of the herd until the last week of August when it was about 20 who wrapped the contract. Ontario pounders are better accustomed to the specs than BC ~finesse~ planters... The ground is very rarely "easy", you just get set up to pound on a daily basis.

TheHamsterizer · Post by **TheHamsterizer** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:02 am

Mr. Amazing wrote: BC ~finesse~ planters...

Oh, THAT's what those were...

Mr. Amazing · Post by **Mr. Amazing** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:46 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcRXJ8w0 ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYu4vGdm ... re=related

ouchithurts · Post by **ouchithurts** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:47 am

Complete disregard of quality and hard working foreman.
Good guys to work with if you are money hungry.

TheHamsterizer · Post by **TheHamsterizer** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:58 am

ouchithurts wrote:Complete disregard of quality and hard working foreman.
Good guys to work with if you are money hungry.

You're wrong on the quality aspect, lots of replanting and failing of blocks going on last year, and the year before. They failed a block on us for dropped trees(!!!) that would have passed otherwise.

sugaree · Post by **sugaree** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:18 pm

Well, I would beg to differ of it being "PLANTING AT ITS BEST", depending on your opinion "best" being...able to plant really really really bad quality, high density and you know stash some trees here and there a bundle a box you know, shady shady shady....but you will make some good coin, but you can do that in BC doing in right and making the same coin...hmmmm

krahn · Post by **krahn** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:43 am

sugeree, have you worked with them? lots of people assumed they were stashing, because they didn't know how they were making that kind of money. admittedly i was only there for the last couple of shifts of their '05 (?) season, but it was obvious why it was so lucrative, they work with the mills on a more logical system than most, and they work ridiculously hard. and can hire whoever they want. also, while the ground wasn't sandy where i was, there weren't any rocks.

plus they bushlined less trees than any other company i've worked with, as the mill allowed them to change spacing specs towards the end of the day in order to get everything to fit, they had it down to a science. sure, the quality wasn't exactly the toughest i've seen, but you couldn't just slut them in as some imagine.

sugaree · Post by **sugaree** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:00 am

Well yes i planted with them for five seasons, i am not at all naive at all to what really goes on way up there in hight level....

krahn · Post by **krahn** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 11:25 pm

okay well that's not the impression i got, but you obviously know them a lot better than i do.

I EAT TREES · Post by **I EAT TREES** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 4:30 pm

I've been there for 2 years. I know it's a far stretch from BC quality....but it's not like you're planting trees upside down. The mill wants density...so the trees go everywhere...period. End of discussion.
as for stashing...if people are stashing a bundle a box...it's news to me.

Big Jimmy D · Post by **Big Jimmy D** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:30 pm

I wonder what lies at the bottom of that swamp. I do not think that a Wildwoods tree would grow any better stashed or planted. I also find it funny that Jeff takes responsiblity for last years shittiness by blaming everyone else. Interesting. Something tells me that he will be replacing half the crew every year becasue it does not take long for new people to realize what a joke the guy is. The only reason people put up with it is becasue the money is good and some times that isnt even enough. Thank you and godspeed.

TheHamsterizer · Post by **TheHamsterizer** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:01 pm

Big Jimmy D wrote:I wonder what lies at the bottom of that swamp. I do not think that a Wildwoods tree would grow any better stashed or planted. I also find it funny that Jeff takes responsiblity for last years shittiness by blaming everyone else. Interesting. Something tells me that he will be replacing half the crew every year becasue it does not take long for new people to realize what a joke the guy is. The only reason people put up with it is becasue the money is good and some times that isnt even enough. Thank you and godspeed.

Firing whiny bitches every year is a great management strategy. Last season wasn't a blockbuster or anything, but if you made the average you still made 30k in 3 months and change. I don't really see what all the constant complaining was for... If you don't like working somewhere, you quit! You don't stay around to drag everyone down, and then come back the following year to complain some more.

sugaree · Post by **sugaree** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:15 pm

Oh... MR. BELISLE...is a man of many persona's....

TheHamsterizer · Post by **TheHamsterizer** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:05 am

sugaree wrote:Oh... MR. BELISLE...is a man of many persona's....

vague comments are vague and pointless....

....

jono · Post by **jono** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:55 am

TheHamsterizer · Post by **TheHamsterizer** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 6:51 pm

jono wrote:
sugaree wrote:Oh... MR. BELISLE...is a man of many persona's....
An interesting characteristic of the word concept of 'persona' is that the effect is not solely based on the delivery, but also upon the reception. That is, the changing state of you, sugaree, has an impact on your perception of Belisle, and helps form HIS persona.

Yeah, what he said!

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 6:06 pm

http://www.alternet.org/story/153442/th ... conditions

Adam says. He estimates that this season alone, he's planted two million trees.

At a modest 200 day planting season, that's a mere 10k a day.

sghyselincks · Post by **sghyselincks** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 12:14 pm

Probably an error in reporting. Maybe he was hitting his 2 millionth tree career total that season.

sghyselincks · Post by **sghyselincks** » Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:11 pm

Here's a video of planting some of the hoe plowed land with WW. The three types of land planted are rips (giant trenches), hoe plow (3-5 tree lines scattered through the land), and direct (unscarified). Contract minimum is 1.2m, 1600 stems/ha-- (no those aren't double plants).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZq-b6HLBY

ChinRoll · Post by **ChinRoll** » Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:43 am

sghyselincks wrote:Here's a video of planting some of the hoe plowed land with WW. The three types of land planted are rips (giant trenches), hoe plow (3-5 tree lines scattered through the land), and direct (unscarified). Contract minimum is 1.2m, 1600 stems/ha-- (no those aren't double plants).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZq-b6HLBY

Sweet vid. Some killer steez going on there!

Post by **Scooter** » Mon Dec 28, 2015 5:51 pm

Tough times:

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2015

Well my friends you have probably heard some news of the poor economy;
Alberta is going through some tough times.

Wildwoods will be forced to re-organize to accommodate for the new environment.

This means one cook plus husband and maybe as few as ten planters total.

Probably a shorter season as well.

Link: http://wildwoodsreforestationinc.blogspot.ca/

Pandion · Post by **Pandion** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 12:33 pm

Here's a video of planting some of the hoe plowed land with WW. The three types of land planted are rips (giant trenches), hoe plow (3-5 tree lines scattered through the land), and direct (unscarified). Contract minimum is 1.2m, 1600 stems/ha-- (no those aren't double plants).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZq-b6HLBY

The toe close always looks like you don't give a shit about the tree. Too bad they're downsizing, less good work every year.

retrovertigo · Post by **retrovertigo** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 4:59 pm

Is it less work overall though? I thought Shakti was just getting more and more of the contracts in that area. I'm under the impression they're pretty similar in work conditions and prices (disclaimer, I'm not an Alberta planter, this is just the general impression I got from friends who've worked for both companies).

thegreen · Post by **thegreen** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:32 pm

There are lots of trees, but Blue Collar and Summitt are taking many millions. No frontier is safe. Look at the bid results this year. This is going to be the worst season that the industry has ever had.

ohsnap · Post by **ohsnap** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 4:37 pm

news on the High Level front.

Jeff's new blog post as of today:

"Hello WILDWOODS CREW, UM NOT EXACTLY SURE WHAT TOO SAY RIGHT NOW.

WILDWOODS JUST GOT SIDESWIPED! WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY AGAINST TOLKO'S POLICY. WE HAVE ZERO CHANCE OF ANOTHER CONTRACT UNLESS LACRETE SAWMILLS BREAKS CONTRACT WITH TOLKO AND HIRES WILDWOODS DIRECT.
TOLKO'S CORPORATE POLICY IS NOT TO SIDESWIPE CONTRACTORS. WE HAVE BEEN THEIR LEGAL PRIMARY CONTRACTOR 4 OVER 12 YRS. THIS IS BULLSHIT. WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

JOHN MACLELLAN IS MY THIRTEENTH OR SO BOSS AT TOLKO AND THE FIRST TO TREAT US LIKE THIS. WE DID A GREAT JOB IN 2015 AND WE DESERVE ENOUGH TREES TO KEEP OUR VETS ALIVE. TOLKO PROGRAM IS OVER 10 MILLION TREES. I HAVE TALKED TO TOLKO HEADOFFICE, MY LAWYER ETC. I HAVE BEEN GIVEN ZERO EXPLANATION."

Nate · Post by **Nate** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 5:30 pm

That's a surprisingly public post. The frustration is understandable though.

thegreen · Post by **thegreen** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 3:32 pm

Sad days. Valar Morghulis.

news on the High Level front.

Jeff's new blog post as of today:

"Hello WILDWOODS CREW, UM NOT EXACTLY SURE WHAT TOO SAY RIGHT NOW.

WILDWOODS JUST GOT SIDESWIPED! WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY AGAINST TOLKO'S POLICY. WE HAVE ZERO CHANCE OF ANOTHER CONTRACT UNLESS LACRETE SAWMILLS BREAKS CONTRACT WITH TOLKO AND HIRES WILDWOODS DIRECT.
TOLKO'S CORPORATE POLICY IS NOT TO SIDESWIPE CONTRACTORS. WE HAVE BEEN THEIR LEGAL PRIMARY CONTRACTOR 4 OVER 12 YRS. THIS IS BULLSHIT. WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

JOHN MACLELLAN IS MY THIRTEENTH OR SO BOSS AT TOLKO AND THE FIRST TO TREAT US LIKE THIS. WE DID A GREAT JOB IN 2015 AND WE DESERVE ENOUGH TREES TO KEEP OUR VETS ALIVE. TOLKO PROGRAM IS OVER 10 MILLION TREES. I HAVE TALKED TO TOLKO HEADOFFICE, MY LAWYER ETC. I HAVE BEEN GIVEN ZERO EXPLANATION."

granola · Post by **granola** » Mon Feb 15, 2016 2:35 pm

Their average last season was over 6100 trees per day, per person. I wonder if Tolko thinks that they can get that level of efficiency from anywhere else...

dkarvas · Post by **dkarvas** » Wed Feb 17, 2016 9:14 pm

Efficiency vs. quality? Is AB becoming the new BC

taylort · Post by **taylort** » Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:56 am

Granola, do you really think a forester cares about efficiency? They pay the same amount no matter how efficient the planters are. They care about quality, and they're probably not getting a whole lot of quality when people are putting in 6100 per day. Sucks for WW, but don't think this will be a loss for Tolko.

kife · Post by **kife** » Thu Feb 18, 2016 6:06 am

Had nothing to do with quality - Tolko was actually pretty happy last year. Actually has nothing to do with the planters of wildwoods....

sghyselincks · Post by **sghyselincks** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 9:59 am

Efficiency matters when you are working with fly-in camps and 80% heli-blocks. Those are some expensive rides to and from the block. The reasons behind the loss of contract has nothing to do with tree quality or the planters really.

The Rev · Post by **The Rev** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 12:42 pm

... and the reason(s) they lost the contract are - (?)

sghyselincks · Post by **sghyselincks** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 8:59 pm

The Rev wrote:... and the reason(s) they lost the contract are - (?)

To be left to mystery out of respect for all parties involved.

sghyselincks · Post by **sghyselincks** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 9:21 pm

Pandion wrote:
Here's a video of planting some of the hoe plowed land with WW. The three types of land planted are rips (giant trenches), hoe plow (3-5 tree lines scattered through the land), and direct (unscarified). Contract minimum is 1.2m, 1600 stems/ha-- (no those aren't double plants).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZq-b6HLBY
The toe close always looks like you don't give a shit about the tree. Too bad they're downsizing, less good work every year.

You are correct in this observation.

I care more about meeting quality specs than demonstrating a particular amount of concern for the well being of each individual tree. I think that's a more quantifiable and objective way to measure quality than stylistic impressions on the amount of shits given on any particular tree. Then again the forester compliments me on my hard work when watching me plant in this exact manner, so maybe the lack of shits moves further up the chain of command. This might be related to the very high success rate of seedlings in the area, which points to the trees not giving many shits either. I suppose therein lies the difference between Alberta and BC planting.

If you would like to see some excessive pampering of trees you could watch this video, although after viewing it, it still appears as though my foot is not cooperating in terms of giving a shit:

https://youtu.be/tO_Iy5KsCqY

Pandion · Post by **Pandion** » Wed Mar 23, 2016 8:07 am

I agree that the success rate of seedlings is more important than whether or not the planter looks like they give a shit about these seedlings. However, I have a contract in BC where the forester specifically prohibits the toe close because the resulting compacted soil inhibits root growth. This is fine by me since you can plant sexy trees faster with other techniques that don’t put you in such an awkward position. If I tried a toe close on any of my pieces this shift, I‘d probably fall off the mountain. The differences between Alberta and BC planting are far more varied and complex than whether you can stomp a hole closed and still have good survival.

granola · Post by **granola** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 11:52 am

Pandion wrote:I agree that the success rate of seedlings is more important than whether or not the planter looks like they give a shit about these seedlings. However, I have a contract in BC where the forester specifically prohibits the toe close because the resulting compacted soil inhibits root growth. This is fine by me since you can plant sexy trees faster with other techniques that don’t put you in such an awkward position. If I tried a toe close on any of my pieces this shift, I‘d probably fall off the mountain. The differences between Alberta and BC planting are far more varied and complex than whether you can stomp a hole closed and still have good survival.

The whole compaction argument is gaining steam these days. Most of the contracts I've worked in the last couple years have specifically mentioned it.

Post by **Scooter** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 2:23 pm

My feeling is that hand closing is much, much better for the roots. You've got to think that they can grow outwards through less-compacted soil much easier than through soil that has been heavily compacted.

kife · Post by **kife** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 6:46 pm

I like hand closing myself. In high level though, the foresters have always wanted super tight trees - it's what they want. You run the risk of being called for loose trees (they will and have called infractions for this), when hand closing up there. Hand closing will work in the swamps when there is literally no chance of getting a tight tree in by any method...

Post by **Scooter** » Sat Mar 26, 2016 5:57 am

Well, you do what the forester wants, plain and simple.

I guess my comment reflects a broader trend within the industry that I've noticed over the past five or ten years, where soil compaction is becoming heavily frowned upon in many regions throughout Western Canada.

kife · Post by **kife** » Sat Mar 26, 2016 2:13 pm

I'm well aware of the issue. In certain areas, compaction has been a concern for much longer than 10 years. I remember certain coastal areas in the late '90's where the logging contractors were being forced to fluff up all heavy machine trails to get rid of machine caused compaction...

Gingerplanter · Post by **Gingerplanter** » Fri Jul 15, 2016 9:22 am

sghyselincks wrote:
The Rev wrote:... and the reason(s) they lost the contract are - (?)
To be left to mystery out of respect for all parties involved.

The rumour says that the owner of Wildwoods acquired his heli licence and was pressuring the client to let him do the Heli. The Client said no and wanted to continue to use the existing heli contractor. Owner of Wildwood gave an ultimatum to the client telling them that he would do the heli or Wildwoods would drop the contract. Bluff called. Lots of people out of work due to stubbornness.