Links and References

Your first season in the bush as a tree-planter is approaching? Need more information about the job, the slang, a few tips on getting in shape and ready to pound trees?

I gathered a bunch of information on various treeplanting-related topics and posted in this all-inclusive informative post for your enjoyment. Of course, none of the following information is mine and credit and thanks are given to everyone involved. Feel free to get as much information as you can, it will give you a definite advantage when the season starts. It doesn't prepare your for everything, but there's a lot of what tree-planting is that can't be fully grasped until you experience it. Might sound somewhat pretentious, but it's actually the case.

SLANG
First, planting being heavy in job-specific slang, I'd suggest to glance at a summary of T.Colin Strong's study on tree-planting lexicon, as featured (and self-admittingly, plagiarized) on Viking's blog. The whole study is available here. You can also browse this planting terms dictionary, as featured on Scooter's Replant.ca. Finally, this is Chris Stoltz's treeplanting lingo 101, a funny, yet informative take on the slang, as shown on Peppermill Records' Hi and Ho, We Plant Trees page. I especially like this one, don't ask me why:

Tree hauler, tree runner (n)-- somebody who gets paid $150-200 to drive a quad or F-350, smoke cigarettes, gossip and try to wheel the female planters. The hardest working person on an Alberta contract..

And this one:

World (n)-- anywhere that does not involve planting. Where people, manufactured goods, artistic products and drugs come from. From Full Metal Jacket-- "When I rotate back to the world..."

TRAINING
I would suggest watching the Fit to Plant training videos. Replant.ca has a really interesting planting training video, but it might currently be unavailable due to bandwith limitations.

MISCELLANEOUS
Finally, to get in the mood and settings, Fuck This Place, a nine-minutes video on treeplanting for Wildwoods (by all accounts, an excellent company) in High Level, Alberta. When I started planting 5 years ago, I thought High Level referred to the intensity of the contract, but it's actually the name of a Northern Alberta town. Yet, it is also the intensity of most of the various contracts surrounding town.

Poundermix: A treeplanting reggae song.

I'll try to edit this post a few times within the next days to add more content as I find it. Hope it will be useful.