Revealing the realities of the tree planting industry in conversation with Director Everett Bumstead
The Guelph Film Festival kicked off its annual month-long broadcast of featured documentaries on Nov. 5.
This year’s program included both Canadian and international films with a focus on “social justice, the environment, and community building,” according to the festival’s website. The festival predominantly consists of films that highlight challenging and relevant issues, with the goal of inspiring viewers and catalyzing discussions on focus topics.
One such film is One Million Trees, a documentary offering an authentic perspective on the ambitious and precarious industry of tree planting in Canada. Director Everett Bumstead explores the arduous industry, workplace culture, and associated personal growth in tree planting projects.
Kimber Sider, artistic director and lead programmer of the Guelph Film Festival, said that the festival programming team decided to feature One Million Trees because, “it connects to the common Canadian experience of tree planting, while also touching on some aspects of tree planting that are often overlooked—the safety of the work environment, the challenge, and the mixed environmental context.”
The film follows planters in Alberta and British Columbia. It chronicles their experiences traversing challenging terrain and navigating communal relationships in the remote bush, residing hundreds of kilometers away from any urban centre.
Born and raised in Plattsville, Ont., Bumstead spent four seasons tree planting to pay off student debt, purchase film equipment, and to remedy his wanderlust. He says that tree planting was an incredible experience and an opportunity to meet lifelong friends.
In making the film, Bumstead sought to pay homage to the planters before him, and to showcase the untold stories of Canadian tree planters.
“The operations behind tree planting aren’t really discussed in mainstream media,” Bumstead said.
Planters are primarily hired by commercial logging companies to plant trees in ruined “cut blocks” that have been previously harvested for timber, and will be harvested again once the trees mature.
While many participate in tree planting for the motive of environmental stewardship, planters have expressed their mixed feelings about “being a cog in the system” of commercial logging. Ultimately, some rethink their participation in a system that facilitates deforestation, as it is unclear whether planters are still serving their intended environmental purposes.
Nonetheless, one tree planter in the film reflects that, “we’re doing the better part of the industry, I think. I’m proud to be the guy who puts ‘em back rather than the guy who cuts ‘em down.”
Tree planting is a piece-work industry and planters follow a quota of approximately 1,000 to 4,000 trees planted per day. This goal varies depending on weather conditions, the experience level of the planter, and the geographic location.
To sustain motivation and reduce potential burnout, tree planters follow a “one at a time” mantra. Instead of viewing daily quotas as a collective 4,000 trees per day, Bumstead advises planters to take each tree at a time, in individual succession.
“The trees come out of your bag, one at a time. One at a time, it’s getting imperceptibly lighter,” a pioneered tree planter points out.
Bumstead notes that this advice is pertinent to physically laborious tasks. Particularly with tree planting, there is motivation in the physical and visible fruits of your labour. He adds that with a desk job, a computer still looks the same at the end of an eight-hour work day. But with tree planting, workers can visibly see the thousands of trees they have planted. This concept is critical to encouraging motivation for workers. After four seasons of tree planting, Bumstead notes that this experience completely changes his perspective on work.
Apart from the repetitive nature of tree planting, planters cite additional difficulties associated with the industry, such as working in a remote environment, swarming pests, and treacherous weather conditions.
Bumstead himself also warns of the hardships associated with the job. Many planters featured in the documentary tell stories of workplace injuries such as frostbite, dangerous encounters with local wildlife creatures, and the annoyances of loitering bugs and unpredictable weather conditions. Working in desolate isolation can also be a daunting experience for new planters.
Just like many tree planters, the toll of strenuous labour on the body was one of the reasons why Bumstead quit tree planting and pursued filmmaking full time.
Overall, Bumstead suggests tree planting to anyone who may be interested in starting, but advises that it may not be for everyone. In the documentary, he aims to show all sides of the industry, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
However, on the other end of the spectrum, the documentary outlines that tree planting has helped many with remedying mental health issues and addiction, and clarifying and resolving a loss of direction in life. Many planters have also attested to making lifelong friends with their crews, who they spend months with in complete isolation.
Apart from workplace relationships, there is also a sense of accomplishment associated with planting upwards of one million trees. “We leave a lot of really incredible growth in our wake. I think that’s something we’re incredibly proud of,” one tree planter said.
For some, the struggles are worth the lifelong friends, free-for-all party environments, natural work environment, and paycheque that the industry offers.
Sider recommends anyone who is interested in tree planting to watch One Million Trees.
“It is a very well made documentary, with excellent production value, that presents the complexities of tree planting in an engaging and thoughtful approach,” Sider said.
The documentary can be found on CBC Docs’ Youtube channel.
A version of this article appeared in print in The Ontarion issue 191.4 on Nov. 25, 2021.
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