This page has been set up to share photos & video relating to the "Coastal Planting" chapter of "Step By Step, A Tree Planter's Handbook." Visit www.replant.ca/books to see books about tree planting.
Coastal blocks can be significantly more challenging than blocks found almost anywhere else in Canada. This block doesn't look too bad, but imagine planting the block up on the hillside in the top of the photo.
Coastal blocks can be quite steep.
Coastal blocks can have a lot of slash.
If you're working on the BC coast, expect to stay in motels, lodges, apartments, logging camps, or on barges. It's very rare to be working out of a tent camp, because the weather is not exactly friendly to tenting. Be aware than in addition to your "camp" costs for lodging, you'll almost always be responsible for providing your own food too. This means buying it, and preparing it, which can be time-consuming and tiring at the end of a wet day. Hopefully you're a decent cook, and know how to ensure that your diet provides for all of your nutritional needs.
It's common to plant fertilizer "tea-bag" packs with trees on the coast. Here's a photo of the chemical composition of a common type of fertilizer.
Mudslides are a fact of life in many parts of the coast, and although rain is certainly no excuse to stop planting, operations will sometimes be forced to shut down when landslide risks become a factor. Although the chance of being buried in a mudslide is extremely slim, it's not uncommon for a slide to wipe out a roadway. That could be a problem if you're on the block and the truck can't make it back to town.
It's mandatory for planters to carry pressure bandages on many coastal contracts. Here's a pressure bandage, duct-taped to the inside of a hard hat. To be clear, WorkSafe doesn't allow pressure bandages to be taped inside a hard hat, because if you get injured badly and incapacitated, and the hard hat rolls away from you, you might not be able to reach it. You should therefore store your pressure bandage inside a waterproof ziploc (or double ziploc) in a pocket or in your back bag. However, having extra bandages is never a bad thing, so when the pressure bandage in your hard hat is an extra spare, there's no problem. Also, it stays dry. Some OFA3 attendants prefer to carry two or three bandages, just in case, even though they are very rarely needed.
This is a banana slug. They're fairly common. Sometimes they have polka-dot patches on them. Sometimes, they'll grow to be the size of hot dogs (regular weiner, no bun).
Sometimes, you'll end up taking a small boat (called a water taxi) to work.
It would be foolhardy to set foot on most coastal blocks if you're not wearing a set of caulks. Some planters change out the most worn-down half of their caulks every week, so they always have the most secure footing possible.
I'm on a boat - Lasqueti Daughters barge.
Andrew plants a tree - a look at a moderately tough coastal block.
It would be pointless to add hundreds of coastal planting photos to this page, when there are already a number of coastal galleries on the Replant.ca website. Here are links to several of those galleries:
In addition, a large number of some of Scooter's best coastal photographs appear in a book entitled, "From Our Footsteps, Giant Forests Grow," which is available on Amazon: replant.ca/fromourfootsteps
Click here to see a page listing books related to reforestation in Canada. If you received a photocopied version of this book from your planting company, or you're a trainer at a Canadian planting company, click on this link for more information.
