On May 10 and May 11, around 50 planters with Waterside Ventures, will be coming to the Burns Lake area to finally start the planting season for them. The local tree planting company will plant on the Southside, around town and in the Babine area. Of the seven companies that have been awarded the planting contracts, a few have already started work in the Lakes District area according to a spokesperson with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, who said that “the development planting has commenced in this area as of this week (April 27) and will likely continue until late June.”
The delays in the start for the planting season were due to the COVID-19 situation. Contractors were unsure as to when they would be able to start planting trees. They were grappled with concerns ranging from worry over safety of the planters and townsfolk, to the frozen trees potentially going to waste, to what would happen to all the people and equipment, if the tree planting didn’t start on time.
However, the government, BC Timber Sales, licensees and the Western Forestry Contractor’s Association (WFCA) collaborated to come up with plans for safe working conditions. The plans include a set of guidelines that the silviculture operators and employees need to follow, including camp health and safety procedures, training workers on safety procedures, hand-washing stations in the camps, food preparation guidelines, limiting travel outside of the camp and having a minimum of one infection and control coordinator on site.
In a news release issued by the Ministry on April 24, Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said, “Tree planting is crucial to the health of our forests, and we are instituting strict measures based on the PHO’s expert direction to make sure that it is done in a way that protects workers and the people of British Columbia.”
Sheamus Hughes of the Waterside Ventures informed us of the strict measures their company would be taking to ensure the safety of the planters and the community. He said that the planters would arrive at his parents’ house where they will be first screened and only then would they proceed to their camp. He also said that those living in town would cook their own food but those who would live at the camp, there would be a cook and they will be provided two meals a day. “We’re going to have a runner for food where one person would be going for food, you know COVID-coordinated and stuff,” he said.
Hybrid 17, another local company that will start planting on May 10, is also taking a lot of precautions in the face of the pandemic. Lasse Lutick, the owner of Hybrid 17, will have 68 planters coming in but none of the planters would stop in Burns Lake. “We have a private location where they can stay away from the community, and when they are there, they will be observing social distancing,” he said. Lutick has arranged for the planters to work in pods where a planter would come in contact with only three to four other planters. The company would also be screening everyone and that will include checking their self-isolation logs which they are supposed to maintain before coming to the camps. They will also be taking other precautions like frequent hand-washing, regular truck cleaning and wearing masks.
Hybrid 17 has also registered for Total Physio Medical, an online doctors’ service so that if something happens in camp where the planters need antibiotics or steroids, or something that is treatable online, they don’t have to go to the hospital. With this, the company will be limiting hospital visits only to injuries and illness that are not treatable online, as a precaution against contamination.
Lutick’s company will be extending the social distancing to entertainment as well. While the planters will spend time in isolation, Lutick wants to ensure they are not lonely and are still enjoying themselves. “We usually don’t have internet but we are providing satellite internet. We will have projectors and all the planters have downloaded movies and stuff so we can watch movies to unwind as long as we can keep our social distancing while we do it,” he said. The company also has a party planning committee to ensure that the planters are having fun while maintaining precautions.
Earlier last month, B.C.’s chief forester had requested that any Interior planting that had not started, be delayed until the beginning of May to accommodate any new guidance or procedures while acknowledging that the planting along the coasts that had already begun, needed to continue while following strict procedures. The request received complete support from the BC Timber Sales and the WCFA.
According to the spokesperson, this year’s tree planting program will occur on major licensee areas, non-obligation Crown lands, woodlots and community forests. The interior planting is in response to the 2017 and 2018 wildfires and legal reforestation obligations to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Planting in British Columbia is funded through a silviculture allowance that licensees receive when they harvest an area through a reduction in the amount of stumpage (the fee operators pay the Province to harvest, buy or sell trees from Crown land). “Licensees can apply for government funding on areas that were already planted and then burned by wildfire,” added the Ministry spokesperson.
The spokesperson also informed that provincially, a total of 310 million trees will be planted and that the blocks scheduled for reforestation this planting season are located throughout the Nadina Natural Resource District. Waterside Ventures will be planting roughly 2.4 million trees in the Lakes District area, while Hybrid 17 would be planting 5 million trees from May to the end of June.
Hughes hopes that his crew would also be done planting by the end of June barring any more delays however he is in complete support of taking extra precautions. “I want to let everyone know that we do have a very extensive safety policy here and we want to make sure everybody is safe in the town; I grew up here, so of course this town’s safety is first and foremost in our minds,” he said.
Lutick, who also grew up in the community, shares the same sentiment. “We are doing everything we can to keep ourselves isolated and protect the community, but at the same time, we are trying to make sure we are supporting the local community by buying as many things as we can locally,” he said, adding that buying locally wouldn’t mean that the planters would come into the town.
“The community’s safety is our top priority and we are honestly doing everything we can to keep them safe. You will not see any of our planters in town; we are completely isolating ourselves and the only person that would be going to town would be someone like me, to get any repairs done or to get food,” he said.