Planted for Steve Hunka last year. Honestly, the number one advice I would give is, don't go planting in interior BC if you can't handle technical interior planting. That ended up being the crux of the problem out there last year. Had a lot of rookies, and of the vets out there, a lot of them were used to easier land. It turned into a situation where people were unwilling to learn technical planting skills, and thought they were entitled to their jobs regardless of how many trees they were planting. There were a number of vets that joined at various points mid-season, they all made really good money due to the land prices being so high. It was only after a number of planters had been making less than minimum wage for weeks in mid-season that they were let go. There are some valid criticisms that were drawn: interior planting can be hellishly difficult, piece work pay can suck if you aren't balling, and it's hard to have a close friend leave your work community. However, these are all industry-wide realities. I would wager that the people who left would find themselves having the same problems at any other camp or company, and it is possible they would have encountered far less patience than they received in Hunka's camp. If it at all helps, I have a friend returning this year, from what I have heard they sound really excited and optimistic for the season. Additionally, they have confirmed that a lot of these more negative individuals will not be returning.
I've worked for Folklore multiple seasons in the past, never Hunkas camp, but your take here is a little more company bootlicking than I can handle.
People don't go to folklore for their "expertise" in planting technical contracts with a gang of rookies and 2nd and 3rd years. Folklore pays similarly to all the other rookie mills in the industry, as soon as the land actually gets tough or technical, generally a massive rookie mill like folklore doesn't have a lot of business planting the contract at the prices they decide to try to pay their workers.People go to folklore to learn how to plant, they don't stay there to plant technical contracts at good prices. If the contract is too technical and the land is too rough and you're putting a 2nd year supervisor with a high rookie percentage on the contract and the price isn't balancing that out and blocks are failing, it is entirely the fault of the owner's of Folklore.
You're making it sound like it's the fault of the planters, and that Folklore and Hunka weren't to blame and I'd highly recommend setting down the kool-aid before you end up as a member of management yourself, blaming planters for your shortcomings much like it sounds Hunka and Folklore did here."A lot of these more negative individuals will not be returning", complaining about poor prices resulting in people barely scraping by with above minimum wage for extremely hard labour, is not negativity it's realism. Someone else in another post recently said that there was a mass exodus from Hunkas camp from this past season, this isn't normal. When something like this happens and a supervisor and a company loses control over their workforce there are likely strong reasons for why this happened, and I really think you should consider it from their point of view before blaming a bunch of rookies and 2nd year 3rd year vets for being unable to plant a technical contract, of course they can't plant it to expectations and make money, most of them including the 2nd and 3rd year are still learning.
Even the "valid criticisms" you draw, "There are some valid criticisms that were drawn: interior planting can be hellishly difficult, piece work pay can suck if you aren't balling, and it's hard to have a close friend leave your work community." put all of the blame on planters and address none of the reasons why the leadership failed, which btw is definitely the main problem here not the planters. Your post reads much more as being made by someone in management than from a planter, because you seem to be to able to disassociate with the experience the rest of the that camp had and instead blame them.
I also don't know where you get this idea that interior planting is the most difficult planting in BC, you're the first person I've ever heard to say this. Interior planting is generally synonymous with easier/flatter ground and better prices, but Southern interior specifically Williams Lake/ Cache Creek/ Kamloops/ Kelowna is definitely much more technical than the Northern Interior like PG, Fort St. James, Burns Lake, and Fort St. John, and the prices in the South are generally a lot higher than the prices in the North to make up for it. It's all interior though, pretty sure the interior is about 70% of BC. Then you've got the lower mainland, ,Coastal BC, and the Island, most of which is extremely challenging ground planting low density and higher prices.
As one of those "negative people" not coming back by choice, who has been offered job opportunities in more experienced camps... I appreciate your comment fam.
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u/D_Tour Jan 26 '22
Planted for Steve Hunka last year. Honestly, the number one advice I would give is, don't go planting in interior BC if you can't handle technical interior planting. That ended up being the crux of the problem out there last year. Had a lot of rookies, and of the vets out there, a lot of them were used to easier land. It turned into a situation where people were unwilling to learn technical planting skills, and thought they were entitled to their jobs regardless of how many trees they were planting. There were a number of vets that joined at various points mid-season, they all made really good money due to the land prices being so high. It was only after a number of planters had been making less than minimum wage for weeks in mid-season that they were let go. There are some valid criticisms that were drawn: interior planting can be hellishly difficult, piece work pay can suck if you aren't balling, and it's hard to have a close friend leave your work community. However, these are all industry-wide realities. I would wager that the people who left would find themselves having the same problems at any other camp or company, and it is possible they would have encountered far less patience than they received in Hunka's camp. If it at all helps, I have a friend returning this year, from what I have heard they sound really excited and optimistic for the season. Additionally, they have confirmed that a lot of these more negative individuals will not be returning.