Appendix 1 – Dictionary of Planting Terms
Last Updated: August 23rd, 2011
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Introduction
Are
you puzzled by all the strange words you come across while reading about
planting? Don’t be surprised – there is
some pretty arcane terminology in the silviculture field, and a lot of it isn’t
scientific. Planters have come up with
all sorts of words and expressions to communicate planting-related concepts,
which have become engrained within the industry over the past few decades. This dictionary should solve some of your
questions about terminology, although it is by no means complete.
Air
Pocket – When planting a tree, the soil should completely surround the roots,
and be touching the roots so that nutrients found within the soil can flow into
the roots. If the hole that the seedling
was planted in appears to be closed from the surface, there is still a chance
that the roots are not completely encased in dirt. If that is the case, then the seedling has an
“air pocket” where the dirt is not touching the roots.
Amphetamines – A type of drug that is a
stimulant. Some planters take amphetamines
regularly to give them a boost of energy while planting, so they can work
harder and make more money. Common types
include “ephies” (effedrine) and “bennies” (benezedrine), or “dexies”
(Dexedrine). All three have the tendency
to “wake up” and energize the planter.
Effedrine is a mild stimulant, while Benzedrine is somewhat stronger,
like a concentrated form of caffeine.
Both are also called “diet pills” because some physicians prescribe them
for weight loss. Effedrine is available
over the counter in some forms in
Area
Planting – When a planter works in their assigned piece, they usually try to
follow some sort of defined pattern to cover the ground most efficiently. Some planters follow the edge of the ground
that is already planted, which means they are following lines of trees already
planted (line planting). These lines do
not necessarily have to be straight, as they may curve around quite a bit to
follow topography, obstacles, or existing planted seedlings. Anyway, the planter is working and following
a line of trees, he or she might eventually come to a group of obstacles that
are difficult to work around. In that
case, the planter may make a slight diversion and fill a small section all at
once, rather than passing several consecutive lines through it, to improve
efficiency. For instance, if a number of
large (two foot thick) cottonwood trees have fallen all over a block, and are
all laying across the ground, a couple feet in the air, it will be very hard to
keep crawling over the fallen aspen.
Seen from above, the ground may be exposed in a number of odd-shaped
squares and triangles, depending on where the aspen trees have fallen across
the block. Therefore, a planter may
choose, after crawling over a log and into a small triangle that holds a couple
bundles of trees, to plant that entire
small area, so that after they leave, they don’t have to climb back into it a
second time on the next pass through. If
the planter is jumping from “triangle” to “triangle” or some sort of similar
pattern, then the planter is “area planting,” rather than doing just one
straight line of trees to the back. The
obstacles or boundaries do not need to be as blatant as in the above
example. Some planters will just do a
form of line planting in which they plant a swath of trees that is several
seedlings wide. The width of that swath
may increase when the ground is good, and decrease when the going gets tough, if
the planter is being lazy or “creaming out” their piece. Technically, this type of approach should
still be called line planting, whether it is a “double line” or “triple line”
or greater (depending on width).
However, many planters often mistakenly call this area planting, or call
it area planting on purpose just to sound good, when trying to justify to other
planters why they aren’t following a line straight to the back of the piece.
Back-Cut (aka. double-shovel) – The
back-cut is a move designed to eliminate air pockets. Once a seedling has been planted, you can put
the shovel in the ground about six inches away from the tree, straight up and
down. Then, if you pull the handle of
the shovel toward you with your foot resting on the kicker of the shovel to
hold it in place, the tip of the blade (which is underground) will pivot away
from you toward the roots of the tree, hopefully closing any air pockets. Double shoveling is probably a waste of time
in any decent crumbly mineral soil, especially sandy soils, but can be useful
in areas with heavy clay, because kicking the top of the hole shut doesn’t
necessarily eliminate air pockets in this kind of ground. Most BC Ministry contracts specify that every
single tree must be back-cut, although this rarely happens in the field.
Bags – Short for planting bags. The planting bags are a set of three large
vinyl pouches, sewn together on a belt or waist strap. Each pouch is large enough to hold about a
five-gallon water jug, or a third to a half a box of trees (on average). Shoulder straps are attached to the belt, to
help distribute the weight you are carrying, so that all the weight is not
resting on your hips (although many females forego using the shoulder straps which
can be uncomfortable when clasped across the chest area). Most people will keep one side pouch known as
the “drawbag” open all the time with loose trees (the left side for right
handed people, and vice versa), and will keep the other side pouch closed with
full bundles. The back bag can be used
for carrying trees too, although many people try to avoid that because the
weight is harder on the planter’s back.
If you don’t carry trees in your back bag, it is a good place to keep
your plot cord and a small bottle of water.
Bama
Socks – These are a special type of heavy padded sock which only goes up to
the ankle, but they are not elasticized or loose, so you don’t have to worry
about them slipping off your feet. They
look like a type of mini-slipper. They
are very good socks to wear in conjunction with other socks because the padding
will minimize blistering of your feet.
Bareroot – Seedlings usually come in one
of two types, either bareroot or plug stock.
Bareroots do not have any significant amount of dirt around the roots of
the tree. The roots are usually not
trimmed, and thus can appear to be quite uneven. Bundles of bareroot trees are frequently just
tied together with a piece of string or held with an elastic, rather than
wrapped in a plastic bundle wrapper.
Block (aka. cutblock) – The section
of land that a company has logged and which needs to be reforested.
Box-end
or Boxtop – Many companies use boxtops as a means of verifying tree tallies from
the planters. As a planter finishes planting
a box of trees, he or she rips the unique box top or box end from the box, and
hands this into the foreman at the end of the day as proof that the box was
planted. Usually the box will have a
sticker on it that identifies what kind of trees are in the box, and how many
are in the box. These days, the stickers
are on the side (the box-end), although a decade ago they often were attached
to the top flap. The box end, loosely
speaking, often includes the sticker and a unique piece of cardboard to accompany
it. Many people try not to rely on just
the stickers, because in poor weather, the rain often makes stickers rip off
the boxes and disintegrate, therefore, the underlying cardboard with the
special marking is more important. A
good combination is often to use the pesticide warning flap on the top of the
box, plus the sticker when possible.
Broadcast
Burns – In the past in BC, it was common practice to set fire to most of the
blocks in the fall, to burn off the slash so the planters could get at the dirt
more easily. That practice has been
mostly discontinued, for a couple of reasons.
First, many people living in rural areas complained of the smoke that
was created by these fires. Second,
foresters are starting to realize that some essential nutrients are destroyed
when the block is burned, and it would be better for the biomass to be allowed
to decay naturally and provide nutrients for the seedlings. The term broadcast burn arose because the
fire was broadcast over a large area.
Under ideal conditions, the edges of the block were light on fire with
special accelerants and fuels, and then the fire would creep in towards the
center of the block and eventually run out of fuel and put itself out, while
the burning crew walked the edges to make sure that the forest surrounding the
block didn’t catch on fire. As you can
imagine, the timing for this type of activity was crucial, to take advantage of
decent weather conditions that allowed the slash to burn, without being so dry
as to present a high risk of starting a forest fire.
Brushing – Brushing is another type of
silvicultural activity which involves taking care of the seedlings several
years after they are initially planted.
Brushers use special saws (kind of like big whipper-snippers, but with a
metal blade similar to a skill saw instead of just a piece of plastic cord) to
clear out large weeds and brush around the seedlings, so the young trees do not
have to compete so much for the nutrients and sunlight needed to develop. Brushing contracts are quite often performed
by planters during the “off-season” since brushing can take place pretty much
any time in the year when the ground isn’t heavily covered in snow. Some of the planters that work in the silviculture
industry year-round will plant on the coast during the early spring (February
through April) then plant in the Interior during the conventional spring/summer
seasons (May through August) and then spend the Fall working with saws on
brushing and spacing contracts, until heavy snows hit in November or
December.
Brush
Mat – A
brush mat is a square of a special type of plastic, sort of like a heavy
plastic tarp, which is usually two to four feet across. There is a small slit or hole cut in the
middle of the brush mat. This mat is
laid on the ground over a seedling so the tree is sticking through the hole in
the middle, then the four corners of the mat are stuck into the ground with
“staples”. The brush mat stays on the
ground and prevents grasses and brush from growing up in the immediate vicinity
of the seedling, giving it a couple years of a head start in growth in its
immediate micro-environment, with reduced competition from other plants. After several years, the brush mat basically
dissolves. Brush mats are typically only
used in high-competition sites.
Bundle – Boxes of trees usually arrive
with all the trees separated into small groups, and wrapped in plastic. Each bundle of trees typically has between 10
and 20 trees, although numbers outside those extremes are not unheard of. For example, if a shipment of trees has 225
seedlings in each box, it might be arranged so that each box has fifteen
bundles of fifteen trees each. Within
any given shipment of a specific type of trees, all the bundles will be the
same size. In the early 1990’s, the most
common bundle size was probably twenty trees, although now the most common size
is probably fifteen trees per bundle.
Bung – A stopper, especially for the
hole through which a cask, keg, barrel, or drum is filled or empties. It comes from the Middle English word “bunge”
which meant a hole. Water and fuel drums
and barrels traditionally have a hole so that the drum can be emptied or
filled. The bung is the part that screws
into this hole and makes the container watertight.
Bung
Wrench – This type of specialty tool is a one-armed wrench that has four thick
tines on the end, and is therefore suitable for closing a bung really tightly,
or loosening it, to minimize the chance of small-scale leakage.
Bungie – A type of rubber fastener
cord with hooks at each end. The bungie
cord will often stretch to almost twice its normal length if you pull hard on
it. It is frequently seen in use to hold
down tarps, or hold boxes on the quad.
Burns
– On
many blocks, large piles of slash are left behind after logging. These can either be created when machines
strip branches off the trees at the road (road-side processing), or sometimes
the branches and scrap wood is left all over the block (stump-side processing). The foresters will frequently use machines to
clean up the blocks by bull-dozing most of the slash into large piles, often
along the edges of the road. In the
winter before the block is planted, these slash piles may be burned to free up
a little bit more space on the block. In
this case, the planter may notice dozens of “burns” on a block, which are areas
of maybe five to ten metres in diameter, where the slash piles used to
sit. These burned areas are great to
plant in, since the hot fires usually burned down to clear mineral soil with just
a few inches of ash on top of the dirt.
Interestingly, trees planted in burns usually grow much faster than the
rest of the trees on the block, probably because of the large amount of carbon
at the microsite, from the ashes.
Bush
Camp (aka. tent camp) – Planters working on various contracts rarely have the
luxury of semi-permanent accommodations.
What typically happens is that a tent camp is set up in the bush near
the blocks to be planted. A decent tent
camp, with a kitchen tent, a mess tent (dining area), first aid tent, shower
tents, drying tent (with heaters, for drying wet clothes), and outhouses, can
usually be set up by a couple dozen planters in just three or four hours. Planters then set up their own individual
personal tents to sleep in, wherever is most feasible. This tent camp may only remain in use for a
few days, or sometimes can be used for as long as a couple months on a really
long contract. When it is time to move
on, the entire camp can be dismantled and packed up in a matter of hours. Technically, a bush camp can have slightly
more permanent dwellings, such as wooden buildings or semi-portable (ATCO)
trailers, but when planters talk about a bush camp, they usually have the
mental image of a tent camp.
Cache – A cache is a temporary
storage area for boxes of trees. There
are different types of caches. On the
block, a planter may have a personal cache or block cache, which might consist
of two or three boxes of trees under a small silvicool tarp, which is just
enough to keep him or her busy for a few hours until the foreman brings more
trees. When dealing with summer
hot-lifted trees, which cannot be stored in a reefer unit, larger caches are
frequently used. A field cache may
consist of a clearing in the bush on the side of a road, with some large tarps
suspended to keep the sunlight off the trees, and such a cache may often
contain fifty to a hundred or more boxes.
Some foremen will set up a field cache beside the block they are about
to plant, and bring enough boxes to it to finish the block, then spend the next
couple days moving trees from the field cache to planters’ individual caches
across the block. Another type of cache,
even larger than the field cache, is the “main cache.” This is often located near the camp, and may
have as many as a thousand boxes or more under a whole series of large
suspended field tarps, again hung to keep sunlight off the boxes. In the summer, the trees will therefore come
out of the nursery and will be transported in a reefer to the camp, where they
are unloaded into the main cache, and from the main cache the foremen move
trees into a field cache and then into personal caches, or perhaps directly
from the main cache to the individual caches.
Spring trees are not hot-lifted, and therefore are usually just kept in
the reefer until they get moved out to personal caches on the blocks.
Caulks
(aka.
corks) – Caulks (pronounced corks) are a type of metal spike that are attached
the bottom of a pair of boots, so that the wearer can easily walk across
slippery wood and other soft materials with a reduced risk of slipping. The spikes dig into the wood somewhat, so
your foot will not slip. Although
technically it is these spikes which are the caulks, common usage has resulted
in any pair of boots that have the spikes to be referred to as caulks. Lots of planters who work in wet ground will
buy the big orange and black chainsaw boots, which have steel toes, Kevlar
fronts, and caulk spikes. This type of
boot is what a planter usually envisions when someone says, “have you seen my
caulks?”
Chaps – Chaps are a type of chain saw
pant, which are pants with special Kevlar webbing that is strong enough to
catch and bind up a chain saw, so that a person is unlikely to cut themselves
with a saw. Chain saw chaps, like the
chaps that cowboys often wear, only have the protection on the front, with an
open back side. This makes them lighter
and cooler to wear, and doesn’t significantly increase the risk of injury,
since most people use their saws in front of their body.
Checker – Checkers are people who assess
the quality of the trees that planters plant.
There are two types of checkers – internal and external. Internal checkers work for the same company
that the planters do. External checkers
work for the licensee or government body that the planting company is working
for. Checkers play a critical role for
planters. When they check the trees, it
is their feedback which determines whether or not the planters get paid in full. There are various systems of monitoring
quality standards, and in almost all of these systems, planters will get paid
in full for a planting quality somewhere between 90% to 95% or higher. If the quality drops below a specified point,
the payment percentage starts to decrease.
To determine the quality percentage, the checkers have a set of rules to
decide whether or not each individual tree in their plot samples is acceptable,
depending on characteristics such as depth, placement, lean, straightness of
roots, distance from other seedlings, etc.
External checkers not only determine the amount that you will get paid
for your hard work, but they also act as the enforcement officers, who levy
fines against planters for poor stock-handling or breaking other rules. For this reason, external checkers are often
feared or disliked by planters. Internal
checkers perform the same roles as external checkers, although the difference
is that the internal checker is working for the same company as the
planter. In this respect, they are
working together as a team. The internal
checker will assess the quality by trying to use the same system and
methodology as the external checker, and therefore can provide feedback to the
planters and foremen if the trees are expected to be rated as being of poor
quality, before it is too late. Once an
external checker has assessed a block, it is usually too late to fix
problems. However, if an internal
checker finds quality problems, they can usually be fixed before the external
checker makes the final call.
Chigger
–
see “tick.”
Cycle
–
Slang used when doing helicopter nets.
For example, if a dozen loads of trees need to go into a block, and only
three nets are available, you can “cycle” the nets or keep reusing them to get
all the trees in. Each time the
helicopter goes in with a load of trees, it must bring back an empty net from
the previous load. At the same time, a
third net is being loaded out at staging while this is happening. As long as the helicopter always picks up an
empty net with each load of trees going into the blocks, and brings that net
back to staging, you can get the work done with just three nets.
Class
Four – The class four is a special type of driver’s license in many
provinces. Most provinces in western
Canada (and the Maritimes) use a system whereby a class five license is the
normal type of full driving license that most Canadian adults use, which is
good for personal and non-commercial use, or commercial use of up to ten
persons in a vehicle. However, the class
four allows a person to drive a group of more than ten persons and up to
twenty-four persons, for commercial use.
For companies which transport groups of people around in large vans or
crummies or buses then, the driver must have a class four driver’s license. The exact number of people vary – for
instance, in some provinces, the maximum number of passengers that can be
transported without a class four may be as low as six or as high as
twelve. Also, the upper limit of the
number of passengers that can be driven is usually twenty-four, but in a few
provinces is significantly lower. The
class four driver’s license therefore often called the taxi license or
chauffer’s license or bus driver’s license, depending on the province. To obtain a class four license, you have to
take slightly more difficult driving and written tests than for a normal class
five license, plus you must pass a medical examination.
Claw,
the –
The claw refers to a medical condition that planters often experience at the
start of the season, and sometimes right through the spring. In the morning, you may wake up and find that
your shovel hand is so tight feeling that you cannot clench your fingers to
make a fist. This comes from gripping
the shovel handle tightly all day, and feels worst first thing in the morning
or in cold weather. It is not so much
painful as just inconvenient.
Clevice – A part on a helicopter
net. This is one of the hooks.
Crew
Boss (aka. foreman) – The crew boss looks after a small group of planters,
perhaps from five to fifteen employees.
Significantly larger crews were common in the past (I had a crew of
thirty my first year), but are not seen as often nowadays. The crew boss will hire the planters on the
crew, and then be responsible for the direct supervision of his or her planters
while they are in the field, which includes assigning land, delivering trees,
checking quality, submitting payroll information, and dozens of other related
tasks. He or she may have help in this
job from internal checkers or dedicated tree runners.
Come-Along (aka. ratchet strap) – This is
a type of strap with a ratchet in the middle which allows for the use of
leverage to tighten the strap into place.
Come-along is more of a slang term, and many people just refer to these
things as ratchet straps, their proper names.
These straps are often used by truckers to hold down the tarps on their
loads, and are useful for keeping stuff attached to the back of a truck. Smaller ratchet straps are sometimes used to
hold boxes on the quad.
Cone-Picking – Another form of silviculture
work, but one which occurs only sporadically.
When a cone-picking contract comes along, a group of people will work in
a camp to harvest cones from trees, to provide seed for nurseries. Typically, a special helicopter will be used
which has a harvesting mechanism. The
chopper will target trees in a certain area that has been pre-determined by the
nursery to have desirable genetic traits, and when the chopper sees a tree top
that is suitably full of cones, the chopper can cut the top of the tree right
off and fly it back to the cone-picking camp.
There, the workers will lubricate their hands to protect against the
pitch or sap in the trees (usually with tubs of margarine or a cheap
substitute), and use their fingers to pick all the decent cones off the tree
top and put them into buckets.
Traditionally, enough cones are harvested over a period of a few weeks
to provide the nursery with enough seed to last for several years.
Container
Stock (aka. plug stock) – Seedlings grown with root systems encased in a
package of dirt, rather than as bare roots.
They are called this because of the containers that they are grown
in. Container stock is more of an
eastern term, and the seedlings are usually called plugs in western
Contract – An agreement to plant a large
number of trees for somebody, such as a timber company (licensee) or a
provincial government’s forestry division.
Many planting camps will work on a number of contracts throughout a
given season, while occasionally a camp will just work on one big contract all
summer and thus not have to keep moving camp.
Typically, in my experience, contracts may last anywhere from three or
four days to eight or ten weeks, although two to four weeks seems to be the
most common. Of course, the amount of
time required to complete a contract varies depending on the number of planters
working on it, and their production capabilities. Some contracts are more enjoyable and/or
lucrative for the planters than other contracts, depending on the quality
expectations, payment per tree, conditions of the ground to be planted, and
dozens of other factors.
Cream – Cream is what planters call
“very nice land”. If you have a creamy
piece, the section of land that you are expected to plant may be relatively
free of slash and other obstacles, with very nice clean or sandy dirt near the
surface. Of course, the price that you
are getting paid per tree is just as important as the condition of the
ground. It is possible to have a pretty
rough piece of ground, but if the price is really high, the planter may still
smile and refer to it as a creamy piece, especially in relation to the rest of
the block. More commonly though, cream
refers to pieces that are good by any standard, at any price.
Creamer – A somewhat derogatory term
applied to a planter who tries or who appears to selfishly try to always select
creamy pieces for himself or herself, rather than trying to help make sure that
the nice land is shared equally among everybody on the crew. Of course, sometimes your foreman or crew
boss will put you in a really nice piece on purpose, in which case you
shouldn’t feel guilty about taking advantage of the opportunity to make some
easy money.
Cutblock (aka. block) – The section of
land that a company has logged and which needs to be reforested.
D-Handle – A type of planting shovel,
which is characterized by having a grip at the top of the handle which is sort
of in the shape of the letter D facing downward. This is by far the most common type of shovel
in
Deactivation – This is the process of
destroying an existing road so future use is impossible. Mills often deactivate roads into blocks by
digging waterbars and by pulling slash or stumps and dirt onto the road, so
trucks (and sometimes quads) can’t use the road anymore. This is an effective way of keeping hunters
and recreational ATV users off the blocks.
Unfortunately, it is also a pain in the ass for planters because it
makes access a lot harder, and unfortunately, roads are often deactivated
before we plant the blocks. In general,
if a road has been fully deactivated, a forester will usually ask the crew to
plant it, or maybe to plant most of it but to leave a couple meter wide trail
for quads. However, this isn’t always
the case, so it’s smart to ask first before you plant deactivated roads.
DEET – This is the chemical
abbreviation for the chemical used in most insect repellents. [Add to this, ie. chemical name, properties,
history, use, different concentrations in different repellents].
Desiccation – The process of becoming dried
out. The roots of seedlings are moist,
and it is suggested that planters store them in cool draw-bags with moist
sponges to minimize the effects of desiccation on the roots.
Direct
Award – A type of contract in which the licensee contacts a specific planting
company and presents a contract to them, and asks them to name a price. If the price is satisfactory to the licensee,
the planting company is awarded the contract.
By allowing the planting company to name what they consider to be a fair
price, rather than competing by bidding on the open market against other
companies, a company can build a long-term relationship with a licensee which
will be more favorable to the planting company and the planters. In addition, although the licensee may end up
paying slightly more for the work than would have been the case with one tendered
out to the lowest bidder, the quality of work performed is often higher, and
thus advantageous to the licensee in the end.
The old saying, “you get what you pay for” is probably applicable when
considering whether or not a contract should be tendered out for bidding on the
open market, or negotiated with a specific planting contractor who will want to
provide a higher level of service in return for guaranteed work for a number of
years.
Donaren
Mounds – A type of site preparation which creates mounds that are probably the
fastest for a planter to plant. To make
donaren mounds, a pair of hydraulic operated scoops is attached to the back of
a skidder. The skidder then drives
systematically across the block. As it
goes, the scoops will scoop out a hole to accumulate some dirt, then when the
hydraulic pressure builds up sufficiently a few seconds later, the scoop flips
over and creates a mound. These mounds
are not as large as those created by backhoes, and because they are created in
parallel lines on the back of a skidder following some sort of logical pattern,
they are easy to plant. They can almost
be planted the same way that disc-trenching is planted, by going up one row of
mounds and then back down the next. Well
ordered rows of donaren mounds in sandy soil can provide the opportunity for
some pretty high tallies.
Disc
Trenching – A type of site preparation in which a skidder drives around the block
with a pair of furrow blades attached to the back of the machine. As the machine travels over the block, the
blades cut a path through the surface of the ground and flip it over, exposing
a strip of soil behind each blade. The
best place to plant the tree is not in the low strip of exposed soil, which is
cold and wet and therefore not conducive to growth. Rather, the tree is often placed up on the
side of the berm (flipped over part), somewhere around the “hinge” between the
ground the berm, or even right up on the berm.
The exact placement varies from location to location, and depends also
on what the forester thinks will make the seedlings grow the fastest. Although the majority of foresters will want
the tree high in the trench because the slightly higher temperature will help
the tree grow faster, there are exceptions.
For instance, in 100 Mile House, we planted trenches on blocks that were
covered with cows. On that contract, we
were asked to put the trees in the bottom of the trenches, because the cows
were scared to put their feet down into the trench, and therefore this kept the
seedlings from being trampled.
Double-Shovel – See “back cut.”
Drag
Scarification – Another form of site preparation.
To do this, a skidder drives back and forth across a block with a huge
steel drum or drums (sometimes solid steel, other times hollowed out steel
which is filled with water to give added weight). The heavy steel drums crush and pulp most of
the slash and debris on the block, making it finer and easier to walk around,
and also slightly arranging it into rows or tracks. One of the biggest benefits of drag
scarification, for the forester, is that it also breaks up the cones and
spreads them around the block, so that the seeds in the cones end up being
well-distributed and the natural regeneration that arises from the cones will
augment the planted trees, helping to increase eventual density. For this reason, foresters will often plant
blocks that have been dragged at much lower densities than planters are used to
(perhaps 1000 to 1200 stems per hectare, rather than 1800 to 2000 stems per
hectare found in many other situations), knowing that the natural regeneration
will bring up the eventual numbers, and therefore save the forester some money.
Draw-bag (aka. feeder bag) – The side
pouch on a set of planting bags, which the planter will use to pull loose trees
from. Most right-handed planters will
use their left pouch as their drawback, while left-handed planters will use
their right pouch as the draw-bag. The
draw-bag does not have to be kept closed, because you are using it, whereas the
pouch on the other side (the side reserve bag) and the back pouch (the back
reserve) should have the insert strings pulled shut if they contain trees,
except when you are transferring more bundles to your draw-bag.
Drip
Line – The imaginary line at the edge of a forest that indicates that
furthest that rain can fall when drops fall off the tips of branches of the
forest after a rain storm. Essentially,
it measures the extent to which the canopy (cover layer of branches in the
forest) extends beyond the base of the trees.
Planters are often expected not to plant past the drip line when
reaching the end of a block, or when planting up to a residual tree patch in
the center of the block. The terminology
is confusing. Planters often wonder why
seedlings should not be planted under the drip line, assuming that rain falling
from the heavens should not be any worse hitting the seedlings than drops fifty
feet from the canopy. What is important
though is that the drip line concept is not so much directly related to the
raindrops but is rather a good indicator of the edge of the forest canopy. New seedlings just need to be planted to the
edge of the canopy, rather than right up to the base of the big trees.
Dropped
Tree – Sometimes, when planters put too many loose trees into their drawbag
(overstuffing), these trees have a tendency to drop out onto the ground as you
are bending over and moving around. A
dropped tree that is discovered on a block can result in a small fine – most
forestry contracts specify a dropped tree fine of $2 per tree. If a whole bundle falls out of someone’s
bags, then it adds up to $30 or $40 in fines.
Even worse would be when the dropped tree or trees are found in a pay
plot. Even though they aren’t planted,
they can be considered to be part of the plot, and therefore count as fault
trees which can also raise your excess.
In the end, however, the biggest drawback of dropping trees on the block
is that the checkers get annoyed when dropped trees are discovered. You should be careful not to let trees fall
out of your bags, especially at the start of your bag-up, while your bags are
most full. It is always a good idea to
quickly scan the ground around your cache just before going into your piece,
and make sure you haven’t dropped any loose trees at your cache.
Dry
Tent – This is a large tent that is erected in some camps, which is
specifically designed to act as a giant drying area for wet clothing. Years ago, camps would have a dry tent with a
wood-burning air-tight stove, which was of limited use. Someone would have to stay up all night to
tend to the fire, and only the clothes within a dozen feet or so of the stove
would dry properly. Nowadays, it is
more common to see propane or kerosene burning heating devices in the dry
tents, which can throw off enough heat to dry the clothes of a camp of several
dozen people overnight. The tent is
quite a sight when it is in full operation after a rainy day, with several rope
clotheslines strung between the rafters, and steam pouring out the vents as the
clothes dry. Just be careful not to put
your clothing or boots too close to the heater, and have them melt or catch on
fire!
Duct
Tape – A special type of tape, usually a silvery-grey (although many other
colors are available). This tape is wide
and sticky, and is exactly the right kind of tape to be useful to planters for
dozens of reasons. Many planters who
don’t like wearing gloves (which restrict movement of the fingers in your
drawbag) will instead put a few pieces of tape on the tips of their fingers, to
minimize cuts and scraping while putting fingers into the ground. Duct tape is also a good general-purpose
fixit material. Just remember that it is
spelled “duct” as in air-conditioning ductwork, not “duck” as in the bird. There are dozens of types of duct tape
available, and experienced planters can often tell you about the pros and cons
of different brands (stickiness to the fingers, ease of ripping off the roll,
etc.).
Duff – Stuff that you could plant
in, but you shouldn’t, because it just isn’t dirt. Duff is usually composed of dry feathery moss
or dry humus material, maybe with a bit of surface litter thrown in. Planters are not supposed to plant in duff,
because the tree roots are supposed to be planted in either mineral soil or
smearable humus and organic soil. Even
if it was acceptable to plant trees in duff, it would be hard to get them
tight, so your quality would suffer since having a loose tree is a fault.
Duff Shot – A tree planted in duff.
Dynablast – A brand of propane powered
water heater. Some camps may have a
propane tank hooked up to a Dynablast unit, then a pump by a river that
delivers water to the Dynablast, and the result is warm water for a set of
showers.
Excavator
Mounds (aka. hoe mounds) – These mounds are made by an excavator, or
back-hoe. The machine sits in one spot
and reaches around itself several times, scooping mud out of holes and turning
it upside down to form new mounds. Once
it has done this, it moves further along the block, continuing to make new
mounds behind itself. Excavator mounds
can be fairly big, depending on how big the scoop is on the machine. It is hard to plant excavator mounds in any
sort of defined pattern, since they are just made randomly across the block.
Excess – Foresters have target
densities that they want to see on the blocks.
For instance, on a particular block, they might expect to see 1800
seedlings planted on each hectare of land (target densities usually range
between 800 and 2000 stems/Ha). The way
that the quality and plotting system is designed, if there are more trees
planted than targeted, this is called excess (which is determined by a fairly
complex formula based on plot results).
Planters are generally allowed to have a certain amount of excess
without any penalties, but once they exceed that point, small financial
penalties start to apply which ends up reducing the tree price.
Ephedrine – A type of
pseudo-amphetamine. It is a white,
odorless powdered or crystalline alkaloid made from plants of the genus Ephedra
(especially Ephedra sinica) or made synthetically. It is used as a bronchodilator (to dilate or
open up the alveoli in the lungs) to treat bronchitis and asthma. “Diet pills” commonly contain ephedrine,
because in addition to being a safe and common bronchodilator, it has mild side
effects that cause the metabolism to race (heart rate increases, body burns
food more quickly), and also acts as an appetite depressant. Some planters take ephedrine because it has
essentially the same effect as drinking a cup of coffee. A huge drawback, however, is that planters
who do this will eventually rely on the pills to feel normally alert, and
another side effect is dehydration, which obviously is very bad for anyone
planting trees.
“F”
Layer – see “fermenting layer.”
Fault
Tree – A tree which has some sort of quality problem, and thus cannot be
considered to be a good tree if it falls into one of the plots. Problems that might lead a tree to be
considered as being faulted include being too deep, too shallow, leaning too
much, bent roots, in poor soil, or any of several other problems.
Feather – To plant more trees among
existing trees, but sparsely. For
example, when you finish a block and you maybe only have a couple part boxes
left of that seedlot, and no other blocks available to hold the trees, you
might be able to “feather them in” across the block. They would need to be spread out quite well,
so there are no extremely high plots when the checker comes in afterwards.
Feeder
Bag –
See “Drawbag.”
Fermenting
Layer – In the three LFH layers, the fermenting layer is the middle
layer. This is partially decomposed
materials. You can identify it as a sort
of peat moss layer but with partially identifiable components still
visible. The litter layer is on top of
the fermenting layer, and the fermenting layer is on top of the humus layer.
Finger
(depth) – Some foresters or checkers use the term “finger” as a unit of
measurement, ie. the top of the plug must be covered with dirt, but the depth
of the dirt can be no more than two fingers above the top of the plug.
Finger
(on a block) – A finger refers to a part of a block that is a long, thin section cut
away from the rest of the block.
Planters will hope that they can carry enough trees in a bag-up to
enable them to plant their way all the way to the back of the finger, so they
won’t have to walk in later with more trees to finish the back of the finger
(which is very inefficient).
Flagging
Tape – This is light plastic ribbon which comes in dozens of different
colours. Planters and foremen use small
strips of this tape to mark locations on the blocks. A two foot long piece of flagging tape tied
to a stick is usually visible from hundreds of feet away. Many people use this tape to mark boundaries
on blocks when there is no easily identifiable division between pieces.
Foamie – A foamie is a large sponge
mattress that a planter can sleep on.
Foamies can come in different thicknesses, say from two to four inches
thick. A foamie cannot be rolled up as
tight as an inflatable air mattress for transportation, and it is not
comfortable when your foamie gets wet because it is, after all, just a big
sponge. However, a thick foamie is often
more comfortable than an air mattress, and you do not have to worry about the
risk of it being punctured and becoming useless. A foamie usually costs about $25 to $30.
Foreman – The foreman looks after a
small group of planters, perhaps from five to fifteen employees. Significantly larger crews were common in the
past (I had a crew of thirty my first year), but are not seen as often
nowadays. The foreman will hire the
planters on the crew, and then be responsible for the direct supervision of his
or her planters while they are in the field, which includes assigning land,
delivering trees, checking quality, submitting payroll information, and dozens
of other related tasks. He or she may
have help in this job from internal checkers or dedicated tree runners.
FS
704 –
The BC Ministry of Forests form which is used to record and calculate planting quality. Checkers will record their plots in books of
FS 704’s.
Girdling – A type of silvicultural
activity designed to kill undesirable trees.
Usually, girdling targets trembling aspen or balsam poplar stands, with
maybe a few cottonwood and willow, or birch and other hardwoods thrown in. When a tree is girdled, a strip of bark is
removed from around the base of the truck, below the lowest live branch. Since the bark protects the cambium, which is
the layer that allows for transfer of nutrients between the leaves and the
roots, elimination of the bark will effectively cause the tree to starve to
death eventually. Once this happens, it
dies, and may topple over a year or so later.
Workers girdle trees by hand, with the aid of specially shaped knives or
machetes. The reason for killing these
trees is often to eliminate the major competitors for a young stand of
coniferous trees, and open up the overhead coverage to allow the coniferous
trees to get more sunlight. Typically,
stands that are girdled contain trees that are between five and fifteen years
old – it is rare that more mature trees are girdled. There are two schools of thought which
support the use of girdling. The first
is when a stand needs to be cleared of competition, but for some reason, the
forester does not want all the weed trees knocked down immediately (perhaps a
lot more surveys have to be done in the following year, and the forester wants
people to be able to move around the block more readily). The second is that girdling kills the tree
slowly, starving the roots. This means
that the tree cannot send up additional shoots and start growing all over again
from the surface. If an aspen tree is
cut, new shoots will sometimes start growing right away, and a few years later,
the aspen stand has managed to re-establish itself.
Greener (aka. rookie) – An
inexperienced (first year) planter.
Greening Up – The process by which the cut blocks go from having lots of
exposed soil in the spring (May) to being covered with green grasses and other
small plants later in the summer (July).
Once a block has greened up, it usually takes a bit longer for planters
to plant it.
Gully – A small geographical feature
on a cut-block where there is some sort of depression in the block, usually
caused by a creek or river (or seasonal water run-off) over a period of many
years. Sometimes, these areas cannot be
logged easily, but usually they will have the trees cut out of them. But the problem is that they are usually
pretty steep and ugly, and difficult to plant.
If you get a gully in your piece, your production for the day will
probably be affected negatively.
“H”
Layer – See “humus layer.”
Hectare
Planting – A form of planting where the planters are not paid a specific price
per tree. Instead, they are paid a
certain dollar amount for a certain amount of ground being covered. As long as the planter meets minimum stocking
requirements for the piece, he or she is paid for the work, no matter how many
trees it actually took. If a planter
plants his or her trees closer together than intended, the same amount of money
is made, therefore, it is in the planters’ best interests to take lots of
density plots on themselves to try to ensure that they exceed the minimum
stocking requirements, but without planting too many trees. Hectare planting was initially developed as
an alternative payment system that would be used to combat stashing – stashing
was pointless because it didn’t matter how many trees were claimed, just how
much ground was covered. Nowadays, hectare
planting is done very infrequently, although most other areas of silviculture
(brushing, spacing, girdling, thinning, etc.) are paid by the area completed.
Highball – To put in a lot of
trees. Every camp or crew usually has a
few consistent highballers that work hardest and plant big tallies day after
day.
Hoe
Mounds (aka. excavator mounds) – See “excavator mounds.”
Hole – Trees are planted in
holes. However, there is another type of
hole that planters need to be aware of.
When planting a section of a block, if some of the ground is not
planted, that unplanted piece becomes known as a “hole”. Holes are bad if they do not eventually get
planted. The best way to envision a hole
is to think about where the planted seedlings are, and imagine them as all
having grown ten feet high, with large branches. When you do this, it becomes much easier to
understand the dynamics of a hole, because it will turn into an obvious open
space on the block as time passes.
Hot-Lift – Trees that are grown from
seed in the spring will be ready at the nursery in June and July. When these trees are being harvested, they
are lifted from the trays in the nursery, bundled, and placed into boxes. These boxes then end up in the field a very
short time later. The trees have not
been frozen over the winter, and therefore they are still fully alive and in
the growing stage during transportation.
Since trees produce moisture and heat as they grow, if the seedlings are
kept in the closed boxes or in an enclosed space, they will quickly heat up and
die, unless exposed to open air. For
this reason, these hot-lifted trees need to be spread out and have the boxes
opened for air circulation, so the trees do not overheat.
Humus Layer – A brown or black material, often moist, which results from
decomposition of plant and animal matter, and which forms the organic portion
of soil. Planters will usually find it
as a thin black layer of “peat moss,” sitting on top of the mineral soil (if
there is any mineral soil in the area).
In the LFH spectrum, the humus layer is the bottom of the three layers,
and completely decomposed.
Insects – There are a lot of insects
that planters could be concerned with.
None of them are particularly important to planters, although several of
them are annoying at times. Don’t be mad
though – remember that insects are critical to maintaining the planetary
ecosystem, and human life therefore depends on them. Despite this, being attacked by flies,
mosquitoes, no-see-ums, wasps, and hornets is not fun. Some people are scared of spiders. If you are one of those people, get used to
spiders, because you will see a lot of them.
You will also see a lot of other “bugs” that don’t really have major
effects on you: butterflies, moths, dragonflies, beetles, water bugs, ladybugs,
and dozens of others. Some beetles have
an effect on planters that you may not notice right away – the mountain pine
beetle (and to a much lesser extent the spruce beetle) are decimating forests
in the Interior region of British Columbia at the present, and ruining
thousands of square kilometers of timber.
J-Roots – When you plant a seedling,
the tree will eventually grow to be straight up and down, as it grows toward
the sky. Just as the tree above ground
likes to be straight, the central root system should start its life going
straight down into the ground (although eventually it will umbrella and spread
across the surface of the ground around the tree). If you don’t plant your roots so they are straight
up and down, they are said to be “j-roots” because they resemble the shape of
the letter J. If you get caught planting
J-roots, your life will become painful.
Replanting a section to fix this kind of problem is very time-consuming,
because every single tree has to be dug up and replanted. At least if you have other types of faults,
like leaning trees, it is pretty easy to cover the ground quickly and through
visual checks be able to fix only the trees that are not straight. My advice for planters has always been that
if there is one fault to be extremely paranoid of, make it J-roots. Use your fingers to tuck the roots down and
straighten them out!
Jerry
Can –
The jerry can refers to a container used to hold gasoline or other types of
fuel. I have no idea where the name came
from, but it may be slang that originated in WWII. These cans can be easily recognized by their
red shape, and by the bright yellow spouts used to pour the gas out of the
container. Be careful that you
understand what kind of fuel is contained in the jerry can. Most camps have at least three types of fuel
on hand – gasoline, diesel, and “mixed gas” which is a mixture of two-stroke
oil and gasoline to be used in chain saws.
Kastinger – A brand of high-end work
boots.
Kevlar – A trademark brand for a certain
type of aramid fiber. This fiber, used
in bulletproof vests and chain saw pants, is an extremely long, tough
fiber. When woven into the proper type
of material, it has the ability to ensnare and hold the steel teeth of a
running chain saw, stopping it from being able to cut or rotate any further,
and is therefore used extensively in personal protective equipment.
Koflach – A brand of high-end work
boots.
“L”
Layer – See “litter layer.”
Leaner – A planted seedling that is
leaning significantly. Trees grow
straight up and down, so it should be a goal of planters to plant the seedlings
straight up and down too. When a checker
walks onto a block, he or she will always get a good initial impression if all
the planted trees are straight.
Remember, you only ever get one chance to make a first impression. Many checkers assume (correctly) that if the
planter took the time to ensure that the trees look good and straight, they
probably also took the time to make sure that the rest of the quality considerations
are good.
LFH
Layers – Three layers of organics on the top of the mineral soil: Litter (completely undecomposed), Fermenting
(partially decomposed), and Humus (completely decomposed).
LFH
Planting – This type of planting usually means that the planters are supposed to
plant THROUGH all three layers of the LFH spectrum. No screefing is required. This type of planting is far less common than
FH planting, because it leads to several quality problems. First, without screefing, it is difficult to
see trees so there are often a lot of double-plants or density problems, unless
each tree is flagged. Second, depth
tends to be a problem, because the plug may not be deep enough to prevent
dessication during dry weather (the top of the plug will be in the sticks and
twigs of the litter layer, and thus exposed to drying out).
Line
Planting – A method of covering an area by planting a row of trees into the piece
beside the last row of previously planted trees. Once you reach the end of the row or line or
piece, you turn around and plant another row back out to the front, beside the
trees that you just planted.
Litter Layer – The layer of sticks, twigs, chunks of wood, pieces of
grass, leaves, and other detritus or garbage on the surface of the ground. This stuff should be kicked out of the way
before you plant a tree in the ground.
The litter layer is not decomposed, and it is the top layer in the LFH
spectrum, sitting above the partially decomposed “fermenting” layer.
Logging
Camp – An effectively permanent camp in the bush, with full-time year-round
heated wooden structures. A typical
logging camp includes bunking and shower facilities, laundry, hot & cold
running water, kitchen, dining room, and maybe a TV lounge or games room. Loggers and equipment operators and truck
drivers often stay at these camps, and pay daily camp costs of between $40 and
$80 a day for most camps, which includes accommodation, use of all facilities,
and meals. Planters rarely stay at
logging camps, except maybe when working coastal planting contracts.
Loose – A loose tree is one which,
when pulled lightly, comes out of the ground quite easily. To solve this problem, the grounds needs to
be closed firmly by the planter, either by squeezing tightly with the hand, or
by kicking the ground. Some checkers
will pull lightly on the top of the tree when checking to determine if it is
loose. Others will do the “two needle
test” or the “three needle test” or a similar variant, in which they grab a
couple needles from the top of the tree, and pull hard. If the tree comes out the ground, it is too
loose. If the needles break off the
tree, it is planted firmly enough. Of
course, the needle tests are not very discriminatory, so it might be safer to
tug at the top of the seedling to see if it is loose. Some foresters prefer for trees not to be
loose, while others will prefer loose trees, to ensure that root systems are
not compacted or crushed when planters are kicking the holes shut. The word loose can also apply to
spacing. Loose spacing is equivalent to
“wide” spacing, which is (on average) greater than target contract
spacing. The opposite of loosely spaced
trees are those which are tightly spaced, or (on average) closer together than
target contract spacing.
Lowball – To plant a low number of
trees compared to other planters. This
term, which means the opposite of highballing, is not used nearly as often as
highballing.
Lyme
Disease – An inflammatory disease caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi transmitted by ticks, and characterized
initially by a rash followed by flulike symptoms including fever, joint pain,
and headache. If untreated, it can
result in chronic arthritis and nerve and heart dysfunction.
Microsite – The microsite is the mini
ecological environment that the seedling is planted in. When looking at a seedling, you could
probably say that its microsite encompasses the area about a foot square around
the tree. Important considerations when
evaluating different microsites for a seedling include moisture content, soil
type, shade, elevation (even a few inches can make a big difference in
temperature), etc.
Mill – Short for “lumber mill.” When planters talk of planting for a specific
mill, they are referring to a specific lumber producer or pulp producer that
has contracted them to plant trees.
Mills can be privately owned or family operations, or they can be
publicly owned and traded on stock exchanges (ie. Larger corporations like Canfor
and West Fraser). If you’re not working
for some sort of mill, you’re probably planting on some sort of contract
managed by one of the provincial forestry departments.
Mineral
Soil – This is what people think of when they think of “dirt.” Mineral soil includes traditional dirt and
small pebbles or gravel. Other types of
soils which are different than mineral soil would include things like humus
(organic soil, composed mostly of black peat components).
Minimum Spacing (aka. minimum) – The minimum spacing is the shortest
permitted distance between any two trees.
For instance, a contract may specify that the target density for a block
is 1800 stems/Ha, which translates to an average spacing between all trees of
2.7 meters. This average contract spacing
is just that, an average, which means that the checkers recognize that some
trees will be further apart than 2.7 meters, while others will be closer
together than 2.7 meters. However, by
specifying a minimum acceptable spacing (say 2.0 metres, as an example), they
are saying that they will not permit any tree to be closer than 2.0 meters to
any other tree, or else they will consider it to be an unacceptable fault
tree. Usually, the acceptable minimum
spacing is at least half a meter to a full meter less than the target contract
spacing.
Missed
Spot – A missed spot occurs when you skip a spot that should hold a
tree. The key word here is
“should”. There is a lot of debate on
this rule between licensees. Some say
that if a tree could be inserted anywhere into a plot and still be more than
the minimum spacing from all other trees, then that indicates a missed
spot. However, this is not correct, at
least not according to provincial quality standards. The Ministry specifies that to be considered
a missed spot, the tree would have to be inserted into a plot and still be
contract spacing (not minimum) from all other trees. If this is not the case, then the plot should
be written down to have wide spacing (not a fault) rather than a missed spot,
to clarify why there might be a lower number of plantable spots than expected
in the plot. To use a numerical example,
assume that the contract spacing is 2.7 meters and the minimum spacing is 2.0
meters. In this case, if there was a
small “opening” in the plot which was greater than 5.4 meters across, then
another tree could be planted in the middle of that opening and still be at
least contract spacing (half of 5.4 meters, or 2.7 meters) away from all other
trees. Therefore, there would be a
missed spot.
Mixed
Bags – Mixed bag planting occurs when you plant more than one species at a
time, and thus have multiple species mixed in your planting bags. For instance, one section of the block might
call for a ratio of two pine trees to every spruce tree planted. In that case, you might want to bag up with a
box of pine trees and half a box of spruce trees, if the two types of boxes
contained the same number of trees.
Mixed bag planting is not that common (or complicated) in the Interior,
where about ninety-nine percent of trees planted are either spruce or
pine. However, when doing coastal
planting, it is not unheard of to have four or five species in your planting
bags at any given time, each of which targets a specific type of microsite.
Modified
Work Duty – Some companies, in order to reduce Workers Compensation Board payroll
expenses, will try to find alternate duties for workers who are injured on the
job, to keep them active in the work force and reduce compensation claims. For instance, if a planter gets a stick
puncture in his or her shovel hand, they may be used as a checker for a couple
days while their hand is healing, so they still feel like a useful part of the
workforce and are still earning wages rather than drawing compensation. For companies with large payrolls, the
negative effect of a compensation claim can fair outweigh the minor cost
involved in paying the employee to do alternate duties for a couple of days
while they recover.
Moleskin – This material can be fastened
to sensitive areas of the skin, to prevent blisters from forming. Moleskin is commonly used to prevent boots
from blistering peoples’ heels.
Monoculture
Stand – This is a group of trees in the forest which is comprised of entirely
one species. While many forests may be
mixed and contain dozens of species, it is fairly easy to find large tracts of
forests where only one dominant species of tree exists.
Muskeg – Swampy or boggy ground,
formed by an accumulation of sphagnum moss, leaves, and decayed matter
resembling peat.
Muskol – A brand of insect repellent
which is one of the most famous in the world.
Muskol was probably the first repellant to contain DEET, which led to
its overwhelming popularity. Interestingly,
the inventor of Muskol in the 1960’s was Charles Coll, who was Scooter’s
next-door neighbour while growing up in Nova Scotia.
Mustering
Point – This is a meeting point, usually referring to a designated area to
meet during emergencies. For example, on
a block, the primary mustering point is usually the emergency transport vehicle
or the foreman’s truck, and an alternative/secondary mustering point might be
the entrance to the block, to be used in the event that the primary mustering
point is a problem. For instance, if the
foreman’s truck has a bear or is on fire, the secondary mustering point might
be where the crew meets to decide what to do.
No-See-Um (aka. biting midges, punkies,
or sand flies) – The no-see-um is a nasty little fly which likes to bite. The problem is that it is so small that you
can barely see it, hence the nickname.
Luckily, gnats do not like DEET. –
These midges are very small flies (about 1/25-1/10) inch long whose small but
blade-like mouthparts make a painful wound that is out of proportion to the
fly’s tiny size. Welts and lesions from the bite may last for days. The larvae
of various species
breed in a wide variety of damp or wet places high in organic matter. Most are
attracted to lights. One vicious biter breeds along the Atlantic coast in salt
marshes and wet soil. Another species, found in mountainous areas, feeds in the
evening and night hours and is small enough to pass through ordinary screens.
These are important pests along coastal and mountainous areas and can seriously
interfere with outdoor activities.
Nub – When trees are shipped from
the nursery, sometimes they are not in perfect shape. Occasionally, bundles will become dislodged
within the box rather than standing in orderly rows. In this case, the roots of a bundle may
become bent. This can also happen during
the bundle-wrapping process, so that planters end up receiving bundles with
trees that have bent roots (J-roots) before they are even planted! These “pre-made J-roots” are called nubs.
O-Ring – A part on a helicopter
net. This is on one of the four corners of
the net. The hooks on the other three
corners all attach to the O-Ring. A
lanyard is then used to hook from the helicopter to the O-ring.
Obstacle
Planting – This refers to a type of planting in which all seedlings are purposely
planted in locations by obstacles, for various reasons. In some areas, snow-press is a concern, and
by planting the seedlings immediately beside obstacles such as stumps, the
obstacles provides a bit of “shade” from the snow drifting, meaning that the
seedling may not be pressed as badly by the snow. In other areas, trees may be placed on a
certain side of stumps, so that when Chinook winds come in the winter and
spring, the seedling is sheltered from the winds (this is true, believe it or
not!). Finally, a more general
justification for obstacle planting is that it is generally good to plant a
tree beside a decaying log or other form of bio-mass, because that rotting tree
will eventually provide nutrients for the new tree.
Off – A well-known brand of insect
repellent. Muskol and “Off” are probably
the most famous brands of repellent.
“Off” comes in a couple different varieties – the Deep Woods variety is
a favorite, and smells best, as far as insect repellents go.
Organic
Soil – Soil which is made up of very decomposed and decaying organic matter,
such as old plant and insect matter.
Organic soil is usually a black smearable mush, much like peat moss.
Over-Wintering – Trees that are planted at the
nurseries in the late summer, after the spring trees have been pulled and
shipped out, are usually packaged sometime between the start of October and
mid-December. Once they have been placed
in boxes, they are frozen in giant freezers.
This act purposely mimics nature, and makes the seedlings go into dormancy
because they assume (correctly) that it is winter. In the spring, the boxes are pulled out of
cold storage approximately ten days before they need to be delivered to the
planters, and are allowed to thaw out gradually. These seedlings, planted during the spring
plant, are said to be over-wintered.
This is in contrast to the hot-lift trees (grown in the spring) which
are planted during the summer plant.
Paloma – A brand of propane powered
water heater, very similar to a Dynablast unit (although the Paloma probably
was available for years before the Dynablast came onto the market). Water goes in one end, then propane heats it,
and warm or hot water comes out the other side.
The temperature of the water coming out depends on the volume – to make
the water hotter, you just slow the flow down, so it takes longer to move
through the Paloma and therefore has more time to heat up inside it. The Paloma can easily warm a stream of water
traveling through a garden hose, and is used for camp showers or to provide hot
water for the kitchen.
Pear
Ring – See O-ring.
Personal
Protective Equipment – This is any type of equipment that is used to protect
a worker somehow. Examples vary widely,
and can include safety boots, hi-visibility vest, gloves, hard hat, quad
helmet, safety glasses, hearing protection, and many other items. Abbreviated PPE.
Phloem – The food-conducting tissue of
vascular plants, consisting of sieve tubes, fibers, parenchyma, and
sclereids. Basically, this is the inner
bark of the plant or tree, which is what allows food substances from the leaves
to reach other key parts of the plant.
Plantable
Spot – When assessing quality, the checker measures out a specific area
(usually 50 square meters in British Columbia) and checks all the trees within
that area. Besides comparing the quality
of each tree, the checker also looks to see whether the correct number of trees
were planted, by comparing the trees planted with the number of plantable
spots. The number of plantable spots is
usually determined by the target density.
One plot is 1/200th of a hectare. If there are expected to be 1800 trees
planted in each hectare, then simple math shows that the average plot should
have 1/200th of that number, or nine trees. If there are less trees planted than
expected, the checker will look to see if he or she can find another plantable
spot. For instance, if there is a gap
where no tree was planted, that might indicate a plantable spot. First, however, the checker must check the
ground right there, to verify whether or not it was a plantable spot. Perhaps there was an enormous boulder just
under the surface, which means that it would not be possible to plant a good
tree in that spot. That might be why the
planter left the gap in the first place.
Plot – When a checker is assessing
the quality of a block, he or she starts by taking a plot. This means that a specific area is measured
out, and all the trees that fall within the plot are checked for planting
faults. Under the BC Ministry of Forests
quality system, which is the most widely used system in BC and Alberta, a plot
is taken by choosing a center point somewhere on the block, and measuring a
circle that is 3.99m in radius or 7.98m in diameter around that point. This turns out to have a total area of
exactly fifty square meters, which means that the plot represents 1/200th
of a hectare. For accuracy, on blocks of
ten hectares or greater in size, the checker will throw one plot for every
hectare of land on the block. Therefore,
a block which is 100 Ha in size will have 100 plots thrown on it to determine
overall quality and the payment percentage.
If the block is to be planted at 2000 stems/Ha, then this block should
hold about 200,000 seedlings. Since each
plot is expected to hold about 10 seedlings (1/200th of the target
density of 2000 stems/Ha), then about 1000 trees will be physically checked,
and the expected statistical quality of the entire block will be extrapolated
from the quality of those 1000 trees.
Plot
Cord – A plot cord is used to help a checker determine the boundaries of each
plot. In planting, if using the BC MOF
quality system, the radius of the plot circle needs to be 3.99 meters,
therefore, most planting plot cords are 3.99 meters long. In spacing and brushing, the plots are
designed to measure 1/100th of a hectare, therefore, twice as many
trees are measured in each plot (100 square meters). To make this happen, a spacing plot cord
needs to be 5.64 meters long. Some
licensees in Alberta, plus the Alberta Forestry Service, use different methods
of plotting which may not necessarily involve round plots. In Saskatchewan, a large square area is
marked out to determine a plot, in some places.
Plug – Seedlings grown with root
systems encased in a package of dirt, rather than as bare roots. Although these seedlings are usually called
plugs in western Canada, they may be referred to as container stock in eastern
Canada. See also “container stock.”
Pre-Work
Conference – At the beginning of almost every contract, the licensee or forestry
checker will come out to the planting camp to meet the planters. At that time, the checker will hold a
conference with either the foremen and internal checkers, or with the whole
camp, to talk about their expectations for the contract. During the conference, topics such as safety,
quality standards, density standards, stock-handling expectations, and many
other issues are covered, so the planters know how to satisfy the contract
requirements. The pre-work conference
usually takes a couple hours, and happens on the very first morning of the
contract.
Precipititis – A tongue-in-cheek reference
to the fact that planters sometimes get a mysterious ailment when it is raining
at breakfast, that makes them take a day off in camp.
Pretendonitis – A disease that tends to
affect planters more when they are working on bad contracts. People say that they have sore hands or
wrists, and want to take a day off. This
is kind of a tongue-in-cheek term.
Planters may as well just say they need a mental health day off in camp,
rather than blaming it on questionable medical problems. Don’t confuse this term with tendonitis,
which is a very real and significant medical problem that can truly prevent a
planter from being able to plant.
Pruning – Another form of silvicultural
activity in which the workers go into a block of well-established young trees,
and prune the lower branches off the trees.
Some people believe that by eliminating the lower branches, the tree will
put more of its energy into growing taller.
The validity of this theory is debated in some circles. Also, the value of bothering to prune pine
trees is suspect, since pine is a self-pruning species (you will notice this
when you look at mature pine trees, which have very few branches until you get
to the top of the tree).
Quad
– A
four-wheeled ATV (all-terrain vehicle) that seats one person. Quads are incredibly versatile machines, and
are heavily used by foremen to move trees to blocks which are not accessible by
road. Although machines made by Polaris
and Yamaha are functional, the Honda “Foreman 400/450” series are probably by
far the most preferred vehicles in the planting industry.
Quick
Thaw – When a nursery pulls over-wintered trees out of cold storage, they
normally are given ten days to thaw in a cooler at slightly above the freezing
point. However, sometimes (through poor
planning or last minute changes in plans) the trees are needed more quickly. If that is the case, a “quick thaw” can
sometimes be done by the nurseries. A
quick thaw can be done in several days, by allowing the boxes of trees to thaw
in a slightly warmer environment. Many
nurseries ask for a five day lead time for quick-thawed trees, but due to
limited capacity, only a certain percentage of a nursery’s trees can go through
the quick-thaw process instead of the regular 10-day thaw.
Ravine – See the definition for
“gully.”
Raw (aka. plant-as-is ground) –
Ground that has not been site prepped at all, is called “raw” ground.
Reassess – A polite way of saying that a
piece or block is being replanted. Some
licensees do not allow trees to be dug up and replanted, therefore, if there
are quality problems, only certain problems can be fixed (ie. leaning trees, or
deep or shallow trees). In such cases,
if faults are found that require pulling up and replanting the seedlings (ie.
j-roots, air pockets, poor microsites), the piece cannot be reworked to improve
quality. Some planters use the term
“reassess” to indicate minor reworking and “making the trees look pretty,”
while they use the term “replant” to indicate major reworking.
Red
Rot –
When wood (logs, trees, etc.) decays, it goes through a couple different
steps. First, the wood cracks and dries
out. Next, it starts to crumble and turn
into dry chunks, usually reddish or orange in colour. Finally, the chunks start to decompose
further, and become a smearable, greasy reddish organic material. Eventually, that material starts to become
dark and more finely decomposed, and turns into part of the organic soil. When the wood is in the stages somewhere
between dry red chunks and smearable reddish organic material, it is called
“red rot.” Most contracts will allow a
planter to plant in red rot only if it is in the greasy and smearable stage, OR
if there are some chunks but they are mixed with at least fifty percent mineral
soil.
Reefer – A refrigerated truck unit,
without the truck. If you can imagine an
eighteen-wheeler transport truck, the reefer is the back container, which
carries the cargo. Many reefers are
between 40 and 53 feet long, and have their own refrigeration and heating units
attached to the front of the reefer.
These temperature control units run off a small diesel engine attached
to the reefer, and are supplied by a tank of diesel which is attached to the
underside of the reefer. The reefer
units can therefore be regulated at probably any temperature between about
minus twenty and plus fifty degrees Celsius (as a guess), but for tree
planting, the goal is to keep them between four and seven degrees Celsius for
transportation (and for short-term storage of spring over-wintered trees). During the spring plant, reefers are usually
left on site to act as a temperature regulated storage unit for the seedlings. During the summer plant, the reefer will
deliver the hot-lifted trees to the field, then the load is moved into a field
cache for improved air circulation.
Release
(pesticide) – Release is the name brand for a popular type of herbicide that targets
non-coniferous species. It is therefore
useful, when used in the appropriate concentrations and conditions, to kill
brush that competes with young seedlings.
Release
(submit a block) – To release a block means that a foreman is confident that the block
meets the contractual planting standards, so he signs an authorization which
releases the block to the licensee or Forest Service, giving permission for the
block to be pay plotted, or to have the quality officially assessed. Once a block has been released, no further
work can be done upon it.
Repellant – A mix of chemicals that is
applied to the skin, either in liquid or aerosol spray form, to repel
insects. Common repellants include
brands such as Muskol and Off, although the active ingredient (DEET) in each of
these is the same. These repellents are
good at controlling mosquitoes and black flies and gnats (no-see-ums), but do
not seem to deter horse flies.
Replant – To a non-planter, replanting
is the act of reforesting blocks that have been logged or burned by fire. To a planter, replanting is the process of
fixing trees that were initially planted with quality problems.
Replant.CA – A well-known website about
tree planting in Western Canada.
Reserve
Bag – For years, every planter knew what a draw-bag referred to, but there
was no common term to refer to the silvicool insert that was on the opposite
side of your draw-bag, or your back bag.
I got annoyed with constantly describing “the bag opposite to your
draw-bag” when talking to people, so I decided to give that insert a name. From now on, the two inserts in your planting
bags that are not being used as your draw-bag will be called your side reserve
bag, and your back reserve bag.
Hopefully I can start a trend here.
Read it, learn it, live it.
Respiration – The process by which a tree
(or any plant) breathes.
Rework – To go over a piece of planted
land for the purpose of trying to fix trees that are of bad quality.
Ripper
Plows (aka. rips) – A form of site preparation similar to disc-trenching,
although the machine that makes the trenches does so by dragging a large tooth
or teeth behind it, instead of having a furrowed blade(s). Because of this, the rips are generally a lot
smaller and of poorer quality than disc-trenching.
Rookie (aka. greener) – A first year
planter. Rookie seems to be the
preferred term in Western Canada, while “greener” is more frequently used in
Eastern Canada.
Sally-Ann – Slang for a Salvation Army
store.
Salvation
Army – A store that accepts donations of used clothing, and sells it at very
low prices to budget conscious people.
The Salvation Army is a perfect place to buy planting clothes, because
they can get dirty and destroyed and you can throw them away at the end of the
season, without having spent a lot of money.
Scalp – When a tree is planted, some
contracts require a scalp, which means that the area around the seedling to be
planted needs to be cleared of competing plants, debris, and litter. Usually, a couple swipes of the shovel or
kicks with the boot will provide a good scalp, and then the tree is planted in
the middle of the scalp. Not as
extensive as a screef.
Scarification (aka. site preparation) –
Scarification happens when the ground to be planted is altered in some way by
machine before the seedlings are planted, to make the planters’ job easier (in
theory). Some methods of scarification
include trenching (disc-trenching or ripper plows), mounding (excavator mounds
or donaren mounds), or dragging.
Scarpa – A brand of high-end work
boots.
Schnarb
–
Slang for the annoying obstacles and vegetation that are present on some land,
including logs, fallen trees, tall grasses, bushes, etc. Schnarb is similar to slash, although schnarb
is usually assumed to include living plants as well as the logging debris.
Screef – When a tree is planted, some
contracts require a screef, which means that the area around the seedling to be
planted needs to be cleared down to the FH (fines and humus) layer or down to
mineral soil. Once the screef has been
cleared down to the necessary depth, the tree is planted in the middle. A screef is more extensive and deeper than a
scalp.
Select
Bidding – When a contract is tendered out for competitive bids, but only offered
to a small group of bidders, rather than offered to the open market.
Shovel – Come on, you must know what a
shovel is! Tree planters use different
types of specialty shovels. Most of them
have smaller blades than a conventional garden shovel, perhaps a foot tall and
four to five inches in width. The
handles of tree planting shovels are usually staves (staff shovels), or shorter
handles with a triangular grip in the shape of a D pointing downward.
Shovel
Tuck – Planters who learn to plant a lot of bareroot trees will often learn a
technique in which the blade of the shovel is used to gently tuck the roots of
the seedling into the hole. If done
improperly, the roots of the tree can be damaged, which is a fault. If done properly, the planter can learn to
plant bareroot seedlings comfortably and easily. Some planters who get good at shovel tucking
will take this technique and use it when planting plug stock, although to be
realistic, it is not the most appropriate technique for planting plugs. Checkers who see planters using a shovel tuck
on plug stock will be very wary, and will probably examine planted plugs
carefully to look for cut plugs (a planting fault).
Silvicool
Insert (aka. silvicool or silvi) – Most commonly, these are referred to as your
“silvies” (almost pronounced “sivvies”).
A silvicool insert is a small bag with a drawstring at the top which can
be tied shut, which fits almost perfectly into one pouch on a normal set of
planting bags. Most planters have three
silvies, which allows them to fully load up their bags (many contracts do not
allow planters to put bundles or loose trees in any compartment of a set of
planting bags that does not have a silvicool insert). The point of the silvicool is that it keeps
the bundles of trees in your bags cooler and less likely to dry out during the
time that the trees are in your planting bags.
Many checkers ask that any inserts containing trees remain closed at all
times, with the exception of your drawbag.
Silvicool inserts are also useful for keeping your water jugs cool if
you don’t have an insulated water cooler, and also for keeping your lunch
cooler than in a knapsack or kitbag. The
outside of a silvicool insert is usually a white plastic tarp-like material,
while the inside is a reflective silver material.
Silvicool
Tarp – A silvicool tarp is used to shade a cache of trees. These tarps are made of a white material
similar to plastic on one side, and have a shiny reflective silver coating on
the other side. These tarps are either
used to wrap up boxes and keep the sunlight off in the spring, or are suspended
(elevated) over the cache in the summer, again to keep direct sunlight off the
boxes of seedlings. My one big question,
and perhaps a minor pet peeve about the industry, is why tarps are used in the
manner that they are. At the moment,
convention dictates that the white side remains up, and the shiny side is
underneath on the side of the trees.
However, my knowledge of physics is not exactly poor, and I recognize
that even though white is an excellent reflector, silver reflective material is
probably even better at reflecting light and other forms of radiation. Therefore, if we are trying to keep the trees
cool, why aren’t we putting the shiny side up?
Putting the shiny side down, facing the trees, helps to trap the
heat. You can hear about an example of
this effect when you talk to any cooking professional who has ever baked
potatoes – the shiny side of the tinfoil stays in, to trap the heat and help
cook the potato faster.
Skidder – A large machinery that is
used extensively in forestry and logging operations, kind of like a
conventional farm tractor is the mainstay of a farmer. The skidder has four very large wheels (about
the height of a person, plus very thick and round), and the front and back end
are held together by a universal joint, which effectively allows all four
wheels of the machine to tip in different directions and angles. Skidders are often used to haul logs from the
middle of the block to the nearest roadway (known as skidding the logs). Skidders can also handle lots of
scarification attachments, such as disc-trenching blades and ripper hooks and
donaren scoops, and they drive around the block to perform the site preparation
work.
Skin-So-Soft
– This
product, by Avon, is a form of skin moistener/conditioner. It ironically seems to have the effect of
acting as a mosquito repellent, and because it is so cheap, suburbia
populations have latched onto it as a very cost-effective repellent. However, while I will admit that this product
does work, it is more effective in situations involving minor harassment from
mosquitoes. When you go to work in the
bush, you will definitely want something far stronger and more effective, such
as any product containing DEET. Also,
remember that Skin-So-Soft only repels mosquitoes, but when planting, you also
need protection against gnats, black flies, chiggers, and more.
Slash – The detritus and by-products
left over after a block has been logged, which includes logs, small trees,
branches, and other pieces of wood.
Slashpile
–
Sometimes, instead of leaving the slash lying all over a block, the foresters
will get machines to gather it up into piles, usually made along the sides of
the block roads. These piles may then be
burned during appropriate weather conditions.
Piling slash and burning it makes the block a lot cleaner for the
planters to work on, but has the drawback of removing future nutrients that
might help accelerate the growth of the seedlings. The forester often makes his or her decisions
about whether or not to reduce the slash based on economics – using machines to
pile the slash, and then burning it afterwards, may reduce the price that has
to be paid out to have the block replanted, so that in the long run,
eliminating the slash is cheaper than paying for higher planting labor
costs. When this kind of a financial
decision must be made, the fact that the slash is a good fertilizer is often
ignored for short-term profits.
Personally, although burning the slash doesn’t make a lot of ecological
sense, I’m happy that the blocks are easier to move around on, even if it does
mean that the tree price is slightly reduced.
Slurry
–
Slurry is a mixture of peat-moss and water.
When planting on bare-root contracts, the roots of the seedlings can
very quick dry out when exposed to the air, which increases the risk of
mortality for the tree. To mitigate this
risk, planters are asked to fill buckets with a mixture of slurry, and then,
when bagging up, the planter is expected to dip the roots of each bundle of
trees into the slurry mixture to coat them with this moist, protective
mix. Slurrying trees is a pain in the
ass. However, it does have one advantage
other than just increasing the survival rates of the trees – most people find
it easier to deal with the roots of the bare-root seedlings when they are wet
and stick together, therefore, the damp roots are slightly easier to control
and faster to plant than when planting seedlings which have not been slurried.
Snow
Cache – Snow caches are used fairly rarely.
In isolated circumstances, however, they can be useful. A snow cache is used in the spring plant,
when working in an area (usually fairly far north) where the only access is
either through air by chopper, or across frozen rivers in the winter. Since the trees are frozen in the nursery,
some companies will analyze costs of flying the boxes in versus moving them to
the site (in the winter) by rolligon or some similar vehicle, over the frozen
rivers. If the contract is big enough,
and distance for flying is large enough, it may be economically advantageous to
rolligon the frozen trees in during the winter, set them up into a huge pile,
and cover them with sawdust or some similar material for insulation. Then, as the winter progresses, the trees get
covered with a deep layer of snow, and of course remain frozen. In the spring, when the planters arrive, the
layer of snow has probably melted from the heat of the sun, but the sawdust
keeps the boxes insulated, and the trees are probably still slightly frozen,
but ready to be pulled away from the snow cache where they thaw within a couple
days once spread out to the blocks. Of
course, there is one huge drawback to a snow cache: the cardboard boxes get incredibly wet and
soggy, and fall apart. This makes them
very hard to move around any more, either by chopper or by quad. I personally haven’t ever seen a snow cache
used effectively, although if the boxes could be protected from moisture in
some sort of extremely large temporary tent structure, or through the use of
extensive tarping or protection with plastic sheeting, the concept would be
much more feasible. If someone has a
picture of snow cache that I could post here, I would appreciate the
contribution.
Snow
Press – Snow press is a phenomena that occurs over the course of the winter,
as young seedlings get covered in a layer of snow. These seedlings may not, for their first
three or four years, be strong enough to withstand the weight of the snow on them
in the winter. The snow may press down
and bend them all out of shape (or flatten them on the ground), so when they
are exposed in the spring, they are all curved, bent, and deformed, rather than
pointing straight at the sky. After
several years however, if the tree survives that long, the truck will have
become strong enough to withstand the weight of the winter snow, and the trunk
will probably straight out eventually.
There is of course a concern that the snow press may not only stunt the
tree in terms of appearance, but also physically handicap the growth of the
tree, or pose a risk to survival in extreme cases. In some places, obstacle planting is
recommended to mitigate the effects of snow press. In obstacle planting, the trees are planted
very close to stumps and logs and other items that may give a small amount of
shelter to the tree.
Space
Tarp – See “silvicool tarp.” I think
that the name “space tarp” refers probably to the fact that the silver lining
makes it look like some futuristic item from space, or less probable, because
elevated tarps above boxes of trees provide a shaded place for airflow.
Spacing
(distance) – When talking about distance between trees, you are referring to the
inter-tree spacing. Usually, target
densities on a block or contract are given in stems per hectare. To aid the planters, a second number is often
given, which is the target average inter-tree spacing (2000 stems/Ha = 2.5
meter spacing, 1600 stems/Ha = 2.9 meter spacing, etc.). Another type of spacing which may be
mentioned is the minimum acceptable spacing between trees. Contracts will often specify some number like
2.0 meters which is the minimum acceptable spacing between any two trees. If two trees are planted less than 2.0 meters
apart, one is considered to be a fault tree.
When asking about spacing, you should try to clarify and get two
different numbers, the target spacing (average) and minimum spacing, so you
know exactly what is expected.
Spacing
(cutting) – In the silviculture industry, there is a lot of “stand-tending” work
done in some areas, which means that once the seedlings have been planted, they
may require additional attention to maximize their growth potential. Stand-tending can include activities such as
brushing, spacing, thinning, etc.
Spacing refers to the process of cutting out some of the crop trees so
that the remaining crop trees are “farther apart.” This is a bit of a misnomer, since the
retention trees are in the same spot as before, and therefore are not
physically any farther apart than they were before. However, the elimination of some of the extra
crop trees in between the retained trees gives the appearance of wider
spacing. Essentially, brushing, spacing,
and thinning are very similar processes, with subtle nuances. In brushing, the weeds and brush are
eliminated, so the crop trees have less competition. In spacing, which generally occurs when the
stand is between eight and twenty years old, there are too many crop trees, so
some of the weaker ones are cut out to minimize competition for the remaining
good crop trees. These weaker crop
trees, once cut, are left where they fall and will eventually decay and provide
fertilizer and nutrients for the rest of the plantation. In thinning, which should be properly referred
to as commercial thinning, the space process occurs as for spacing, but the age
of the stand is a lot greater (perhaps 25-40 years) and the crop trees which
are cut in the thinning process are salvaged for commercial use (probably to
make pulp) rather than just being left to rot on the forest floor.
Spear – The spear is very similar to
a staff shovel, but has a narrower blade.
The spear can be very useful in extremely rocky ground, where the narrow
width of the blade makes it easier to shove into the ground between the rocks.
Sphagnum – A type of moss, any specimen
of which is any member of a large genus (Sphagnum)
of atypical mosses that grow only in wet acid areas where their remains become
compacted with other plant debris, and eventually form peat. These mosses have white leaves which are
slightly tinged with green or red. Any
patch that sphagnum grows will probably not feature any other significant plant
life.
Sponges – Some licensees require
planters to carry sponges in each of their insert bags. These sponges, which are expected to be kept
moist, will theoretically provide moisture for the roots of the trees. Many planters think of sponges as being a big
hassle. I personally don’t think that
sponges are that effective, especially since most contracts feature plug stock
rather than bare-roots, but at the same time they don’t weigh that much, so I
don’t see any reason to try to argue the necessity for carrying them. Rather than asking my planters to buy proper
kitchen sponges, I usually go to the dump at the start of the season to see if
I can find an old chesterfield or armchair that has foam cushions, and just cut
up the foam centers of the cushions.
Failing that, you can buy a large foamie for about $25 at a sporting
goods store, and cut that up to provide sponges for an entire crew.
Stand – A community of trees which is
sufficiently uniform in species composition, age, arrangement, and condition to
be distinguishable as a group from the forest or other growth in adjoining areas,
which thus forms a single management entity.
Stand
Tending – Stand tending is the process of taking care of a stand of trees, which
can include pest management through herbicides and pesticides, physical
maintenance through brushing and spacing and thinning, and other miscellaneous
activities such as pruning of limbs, culling of diseased trees, etc.
Stashing – Stashing is the illegal
disposal of seedlings that should be planted.
Stashing is very similar to theft.
Some planters, regrettably, will stash some of their trees and say they
planted the seedlings, to try to make more money. This meets with varying degrees of success –
statistical analysis of blocks will quickly show if the expected density based
on planters claimed tallies matches the plotted density of the block. If the stats show that the numbers don’t
jive, checkers will quickly investigate to see what could have caused the
discrepancies. There are quite a few
methods used to look for stashing of trees.
In some areas, stashing is unfortunately a tolerated part of the
planting culture, although in my experience it is commonly frowned upon in BC
and Alberta, and people suspected of stashing are usually terminated
immediately. Stashing is morally wrong,
and many honest planters will bring problems to the attention of their foremen
if they think another planter is stashing trees.
Steel
Shank – Many good work boots have a steel or metal strip embedded into the
bottom of the boot, which prevents the sole from being bent when walking on sticks
and rocks and uneven materials. The
steel shank also protects the bottom of your foot when kicking a shovel,
because rather than all the pressure being concentrated in one part of the foot
(where it meets the shovel), the pressure is instead distributed more evenly
across the entire bottom of the foot.
Tendonitus – Aka. Tendonitis. A condition referring to inflammation of
tendons and of tendon muscle attachments.
Thinning – Thinning, properly known as
commercial thinning, is a form of stand tending similar to spacing. Some of the crop trees in a stand or
plantation will be cut, in order to minimize competition for the remaining crop
trees. In spacing, the eliminated trees
are usually left to rot and decay on the block, but with commercial thinning,
the cut trees are presumably large enough to be salvaged for commercial use,
such as for production of pulp.
Tick
(aka. chigger) – A member of the family Ixodidae,
which has numerous small bloodsucking parasitic arachnids, many of which
transmit diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease. Ticks can also refer to members of the family
Hippobosciddae, which are wingless,
louselike insects which are parasitic on sheep, goats, and many other animals.
Toe-Tapping – Toe-tapping occurs when a
planter closes a hole by gently tapping it shut with the toes, rather than
giving a good hard kick with the heel.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. Toe-tapping uses less energy, and isn’t as
hard on your heel and foot as toe-tapping.
However, toe-tapping doesn’t always close the hole properly, or
eliminate potential air pockets. Of
course, one drawback of kicking hard when closing the hole is that the roots of
the seedling may be compressed, making it harder for the tree to become
established.
Treatment – The type of treatment on a
block refers to the type of site preparation, if any. Some different types of treatment can include
various forms of trenching or mounding, or other miscellaneous approaches such
as burning, dragging, etc. Treating a
block, depending on the method of site preparation used, is expensive for the
forester, however, it usually makes it easier for the planter to plant the
trees. Of course, because the ground is
easier, the planter usually gets paid less for treated ground than he or she
would for raw, un-prepped ground.
Tree
Runner – Some companies employ tree runners to deliver trees to the planters,
rather than leaving this responsibility solely in the hands of the foremen or
crew bosses. The tree runner will
usually have a quad, and will spend the day bringing truckloads of trees from
the main cache out to where the trucks park by the block, and then quadding the
trees from the truck to the individual planter caches. Making sure that planters never run out of
trees should always be the top priority of any foreman. Unfortunately, foremen are often paid by
commission, while tree runners are often paid by the hour, or given a daily
rate. This can cause problems, because
the tree runner may not be as motivated as the foreman to ensure that the trees
are delivered to the planters as quickly as humanly possible. If that is the case, planters who have to
wait for trees may get extremely frustrated with the tree runners. Tree runners are sometimes most useful as a
backup to foremen, especially if they can double as quality checkers during
times when tree running is caught up and the planter caches are all
well-stocked.
Trenches – Trenching is a form of site
preparation, in which a trenching machine (perhaps a skidder with the
appropriate trenching attachments) goes back and forth over a block, and digs
up trenches in the block. The planters
then walk up and down each trench, and plant trees either in the exposed dirt,
or on upturned humps (high spots), depending on the particular contract
specifications. There are several
different types of trenching, such as disc-trenching, ripper plow, etc. Each type varies mostly in the way that the
trench is made (either by a rip through the ground, or by a blade or disc
flipping over a row of sod and dirt). It
is always much faster to plant up and down along the trenches (following the
trenches), rather than trying to plant across the trenches. Therefore, the skill of a site-prep operator
in laying out the trenches in a manner well-suited for planting can make a huge
difference in the speed with which a block can be planted.
Trike – A trike is a three-wheeled
ATV. These things are [hopefully] no
longer in commercial use in planting companies, having been replaced by quads
in the 1989-1993 period. Trikes are
incredibly dangerous because they are unstable and very easy to flip, and in
the early 1990’s they were the cause of many broken and sprained ankles and
other problems.
Two
Finger Rule – The two-finger rule (or one-finger rule, or three-finger rule) refers
to the general depth tolerance on a planting contract. Usually, a forester will say something like
“you are expected to cover the top of the plug when planting the seedling, and
you have a tolerance so that you can plant it a bit deeper by as much as the
width of two fingers, before you will get faulted for your tree being too
deep.” Of course, the number of fingers
depends on the forester or checker, and since everybody’s fingers are slightly
different, this is a somewhat arbitrary measure, but it gives the planter a
rough idea of what the checker is looking for.
Ungulate – An animal belonging to the
orders Perissodactyla or Artiodactyla, which are comprised of the
hoofed animals such as horses, cattle, deer, caribou, moose, swine, and
elephants.
Unplantable
Ground – For ground to be considered unplantable, the checker must not be able
to plant an acceptable tree, according to normal contract quality
standards. A number of things could
cause a specific spot, or general area, to be classified as unplantable. For instance, consistent red rot, or a thick
carpet of sticks, might be a good reason not to plant a tree. Most commonly though, I think that wet ground
(if the hole made by your shovel immediately fills up with water) and extreme
solid rock would be the two most common reasons for a small area to be
considered unplantable. It is fairly
common to find a specific spot which is unplantable, but with a little bit of
work, the planter can usually find a plantable spot within a few feet. It is very rare to find unplantable areas
more than five or ten meters across, except on very nasty blocks.
Vet – A vet refers to a veteran or
experienced planter. Planters are considered
to be veterans after they have completed one spring and/or summer season, and
return to the field the following year.
Some companies, in submitting bid proposals for contracts, promise that
they will supply 100% experienced planters, under the assumption that a planter
who has spent three days learning to plant elsewhere is experienced. I think that’s bullshit. A first-year planter should be called just
that, a first-year planter, for the entire first year that they are
planting. Of course, a first-year
planter near the end of the summer, with sixty or seventy days of experience,
can sometimes be almost as good as any of the true experienced planters in
their second or third year. I usually
refer to new planters as “rookies” during the spring season, and as “first-year
planters” during the summer half of their first year, once they have several
weeks of experience.
Vexar
Cones – Vexar cones are short cones made of plastic or similar materials,
which are placed over a tender young seedling to protect it from being eaten by
deer and other ungulates. Presumably
these cones are biodegradable, and disintegrate after several years once the
seedling has established itself and started to grow. Vexar cones are not commonly used in the
interior, although they are fairly common on some contracts on the coast of BC.
Void – A void is what is created
when a “hole” or unplanted area is left on a block. Since there are no trees planted in a
specific area, there will be an empty spot or hole in the forest canopy once
all the surrounded trees have matured and grown up. The term “hole” is usually used in planting,
whereas the term “void” is used in spacing but is slightly different than the
term hole. In spacing, a hole is often
acknowledged as a pre-existing spot in the plantation devoid of trees, whereas
a void is a hole that has been created accidentally by a worker who has
unfortunately cut down too many crop trees in a specific spot, thus creating a
void where there used to be trees.
Creating a void while spacing is a very bad thing to do.
Walk-box – A walk-box is a plastic
container attached to a belt that contains a strong nylon string and a
counter. If you tie the string to a
stick or something stationary, then start walking, the counter on the walk-box
will register the number of meters of string that has played out, which
therefore tells you how far you have walked.
The walk-box is commonly used by checkers and other forestry workers to
measure the distance between plots, etc.
Waterbar – A type of deactivation that
is especially annoying, because often a road will be left fully functional
except for the waterbars. Basically,
this is a ditch that is dug completely across the road, with the excavated dirt
on one side of the ditch (generally the low side). When there is heavy rain or run-off, and a
ditch is extremely full on one side of the road, the dug-out waterbars allow
the water to flow to the other side of the road without flowing across the
surface of the road (which generally washes out large sections of the
road). So this way, when the road needs
to be brought back into use, the waterbars just need to be filled back in
rather than having large sections of the road repaired. Most waterbars are only a foot deep or
thereabouts, so a four-wheel drive truck with good clearance can generally get
through them (easiest if you come at the waterbar at an angle rather than
straight on). But I’ve also seen
waterbars that are dug so deep they could swallow an entire truck.
West
Nile Virus – A viral disease of varying severity, occurring in Africa, Asia, the
Mediterranean, and parts of North America.
It is a type of flavirus mainly infecting birds and mosquitoes,
transmitted by them to humans and other animals, which causes flu-like symptoms
(West Nile fever) which may lead to encephalitis and meningitis, with no known
treatment. Unluckily for tree planters,
I have read articles that estimate within five years, more than one mosquito in
a hundred might eventually become carriers for this disease in Western
Canada. Knowing how many times that a
planter gets bitten by mosquitoes each year, this means almost certain exposure
to the disease over the long term.
However, the same article suggests that the people who are most
susceptible to the disease are the very young, the old, and the weak. It was estimated that among healthy young
tree planters, less than two percent of the population would even notice the
symptoms or have any obvious deleterious effects, and that less than one in ten
of those people would suffer any serious effects.
Xylem – The supporting and
water-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting primarily of tracheids
and vessels. Basically, this is the
woody part of a plant or tree.
Conclusions
If you have any suggestions or additions
to the above information, please send an email to jonathan.scooter.clark@gmail.com
or post feedback in the appropriate thread of the training forum on the Replant
Message Boards at www.replant.ca/board
Also, please feel free to print
this page and pass the information along to other potential planters, and let
them know the link to www.replant.ca
An excellent additional
reference for forestry and silviculture related terms, in case you can’t find a
specific definition above, is at the Ministry of Forestry website’s glossary
page, found at http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/glossary
- Jonathan Clark (Scooter),
author.