PRT in Ontario

[Jessica]

I have received some information about a planting company called PRT through my university. Can you tell me anything about them? It seems their contracts are mostly in Ontario, which is fine with me. In fact my only concern is all that bad discussion surrounding gov't contracts mostly in Ontario, as i understand. Now, obviously i don't know gov't from commune when it comes to treeplanting, and i'm wondering whether it really matters where you start off in your first season at all? I mean wherever it be, it won't be pretty.."

[Scooter]

I normally don't answer questions about specific companies unless I've worked for them. However, this one was a special case because I was curious about the company myself, as it had the same name as a company I used to foreman for. Here's what I was able to find for Jessica ...

Ok, I actually talked to Scott Carpenter at PRT today to get a bit more background on their company. It turns out we know some of the same people out west, because he worked out of Prince George for a while, several years ago. PRT is in fact the same company that I worked for years ago, in practice, although in practice it's completely different. Pacific Regeneration Technologies is actually the name of a large group of related nurseries based mainly on the West Coast (I think they have at least 12 nurseries in BC and Alberta, and maybe as many as fifteen or more by now). They apparently also have three member nurseries in Ontario, including one in Dryden which is where the PRT Frontier planting company is based out of. PRT stopped planting in BC in 1994 (I worked as a foreman on their last contract in Lac La Biche, Alberta, that summer). PRT Frontier is a new branch in Ontario that is going into their third season. This year they expect to have close to ten million trees on three separate contracts, working for Weyhauser, Kimberly-Clark, and one other company, and I believe these contracts are all in the Dryden region of Northern Ontario. From what Scott inferred today, he doesn't seem to think that they'll be doing any west coast work in the upcoming season. For the benefit of people who don't have the contact info for PRT, Scott can be reached at 1-800-270-9973, or by email at SCarpenter@prtgroup.com.

As far as whether or not I would recommend planting for them, I can't really give you a very qualified opinion since I've never planted Ontario. I do know that almost without exception, anyone I've talked to that has planted both Ontario and the west coast recommends BC. However, if you are limiting your choice to Ontario-based companies only, that won't be a consideration. Certainly the information that PRT Frontier provides to persons making inquiries through email appears to be quite thorough, and Scott said that their minimum tree price this season is 8 cents per tree. Unfortunately, some prices in BC and Alberta are dropping to close to that level.

I think I would recommend that if you want to really find out more about this company before you make a decision, ask for some names of people that planted for the company last summer. Try to contact those people, and then try to talk to other contacts in a chain effect. Remember that you should take the opinions of people that the company directly referred you to with a grain of salt - these are probably more-than-likely workers with a bit of a pro-company bias, no matter what company you're dealing with. You can also check on the different Canadian planting sites and look at company reviews. These should also be taken with a grain of salt, because sometimes you'll get people writing reviews that are overly hard on companies because of personal grudges, or overly positive in the opposite respect. The only way that I'd really pay a lot of attention to reviews is if you can find quite a few on the same company by different people, and you get a real consistency in what the different people are saying. I hope this helps a bit! Feel free to contact me if you've got additional questions....

[rod]

hey i dont know if anyone is going to read this cause its a pretty delayed post, but i was working in manitouwadge ontario this year for PRT, and for the most part they seem to have their shit together, trees are nice, no super shitty stocks and never frozen bundles around, so it isnt a bad company to work for. Whether or not they are only worth 8 cents a tree is debatable though.

and scooter the other company you might be thinking of is buchanan forestry. DONT GO TO MANITOUWADGE! nothing but duff and 98% quality for 8 cents

[Boular]

I worked For PRT for my first two years, in Longlac. It was planting, good prices 9cents for prep and 10 for non prep. Mixture of land just like any contract cream of the cream kife of the kife. Could use some new vechicles though. Good management god times.

[PRT Frontier]

1st of all thanks to Scooter for help getting registered with the site. It is definitely refreshing to see a site that is so devoted to educating tree planters from excellent resources.

I just want to clarify a few of the remarks that have been posted. PRT Frontier used to be called Frontier. Frontier started in 1989 as a small contractor based out of Thunder Bay owned by Mike Wood. In 1998 Mike moved operations to Dryden, ON to be closer to our main contracts. At that time Mike and I worked with PRT to build their 1st nursery in ON in Dryden. In 1999 PRT purchased Frontier and have since been PRT Frontier.

Over the last 5 years we have averaged approximately 12 million trees per year with long standing customers. In the Dryden area we have planted since 1989, in Longlac area we have planted since 1993, in the Red Lake area we have planted since 1997, in the Sioux Lookout area we have planted since 2002. We have never planted in Manitouwadge as someone has posted although the Manitouwadge area plants many PRT trees.

For spring 2007 we will plant ~11 million trees in Dryden, Kenora, Red Lake, Ear Falls, Terrace Bay, and Longlac. We also have an August plant in Ontario that will extend planter's seasons to approx 65 planting days. We are very fortunate to have a very experienced and motivated staff, and our planting crews are over 50% experienced.

I encourage anyone that is interested in planting in Ontario to contact me for more information. Phone - 800 270 9973 (x31), email - scott.carpenter@prtgroup.com. Also for more info about PRT in general our website is http://www.prtgroup.com.

Happy Planting

Scott Carpenter

[summitpb]

Gotta say...

Planted frontier for 4 seasons in ontario.....I went back because the dedicated staff...good planters(best in ontario)...by far.......awesome camp .... and most important...solid money and kick ass seasons .......

viva frontier

but.....now I gotta save the best for the west

[skibum_]

I planted with PRT briefly for their Auguest summer plant in '07. Very committed and caring staff. Foreman seemed very experienced. Camp and cook were great too.

Only problem I had were with the prices. We were planting out of longlac and 8cent scarified and 9 cents unscarified with $20 camp costs is a joke. Especially since it was not great land. I dropped from $350-400/day average in my spring contract to $250-$300/day and I was one of the top planters.

I have heard that some of there northwestern ontario contracts have higher tree prices like 9.5cents unscarified and 10.5 cents scarified. If that is the case, then PRT would be a great company to plant for. I would consider them probably one of the best in Ontario with the higher tree prices