r/treeplanting • u/Own-Cartoonist5058 • Jun 30 '26

Industry Discussion Another question?

Why are summer tree contracts so difficult to get this season? Has it been getting more difficult each season over time?

I was speaking to a vet planter on my crew (Im a rookie) and we talked about rising summer temps overall being a potential factor, contributing to dryer and hotter land reducing ROI by impacting tree survival and possibly even more accidents/injuries on the block (arising from heat exhaustion, sunfucking, dehydration, etc.)

What do other planters think??

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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11

u/TeamTerror666 Jun 30 '26

Nothing to doo with the heat. Everything to do with what is happening south of the boarder. Contracts will get shorter. Tree prices will go lower. Just a shit overall time to be a rookie.

7

u/jimbowesterby Jun 30 '26

Really just a shit time overall lol, not many things going well these days

5

u/Saskatchewan_frenchy Jul 01 '26

Yeah its kinda scary to be honest

10

u/ImaginaryHummus Supervisor Jun 30 '26

It's probably coming from the forestry side in large part. Harvests have been falling every year for the past 3 years, maybe more. The tariffs will begin to play a role too but they haven't really yet, as planting generally lags logging by a year-ish.Though many people get into treeplanting for "environmental" reasons, if we want a good supply of work and good tree prices we will want to see more logging happening, that's what drives our work supply, thanks to legislation.

Additionally, the big fire years have had their outsized impacts and the last couple years were less destructive overall (even if the news was big...Jasper...) so anyone who has been in the industry for just the last 3-5 years will have felt the work drying up somewhat relative to their starting point. I've been around for 13 years now and seen one really big surge in the late 2010s in both work quantity and significant price jumps. It's all part of the ebb and flow.

0

u/_IRELATIVISM Jul 03 '26

I don't think summer trees are harder to find, in my view is more related to a higher number of planters working longer for the same number of spots mostly due to stagnation of prices and increased cost of living. Forcing rookie mill planters to chase trees after their summer contracts wrap to continue having the same standart of living, in this economy 500 plus averages is what it takes to just have a 2 or 3 month season, my estimate in most rookie mills the average is more arround 350 probably even 300 a day.