It was Friday afternoon and we were all on our way back to High Prairie. Kirk and I live in trailers outside of town along with Bailey and Taya who are two returning students. Taya is a recent graduate of the Forest Technology program at NAIT while Bailey is in her third year of Forestry at the University of Alberta. Both worked for Tolko last summer as well so they have been able to give Kirk and I some guidance as we’ve started this new job.
In the following week we settled back into our trailers and our regular fire duties carried on. We spent our days helping move fire equipment and setting it up until Wednesday when we received an unordinary text from Travis asking for a meeting the next morning. The next morning on our way to the log yard we stopped in the office. At this point most people were still out as Dozer Bosses so the office was oddly quiet. I remember stepping into the meeting room and we were all waiting in anticipation to find out what this meeting was going to be about. Travis soon stepped in and told us he wanted to brief us on the fire situation. He pulled up a map of the Forest Management Area off of his laptop onto a projector. He then pulled up a map of all the current fires in our FMA which covered most of it. He explained that with everything on fire there was no work we could do. As Travis was explaining this I thought he was leading up to some bad news that we were going to be laid off. As it turns out he reached out to another Tolko mill in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan and made arrangements for us to live and work there temporarily. To us this was great news, it seemed like a cool opportunity to see a different province and I was happy to still have a job. We were to leave Monday morning and stay in Saskatchewan for at least two weeks.
Monday eventually came and I had packed the essentials, we left early as we had a six hour drive ahead of us. We arrived in Meadow Lake late afternoon and met everyone we would be working with. We were taken to the “Tolko house” where we would be staying. It was a house owned by Tolko where they let students stay. On our first day we were in the office and we went over some typical stuff they tell all the new employees. The following day we had a tour of the mill. Meadow Lake is an OSB Mill, just like High Prairie is. We stepped into the mill which was huge, it was its own city in there built around different pieces of industrial machinery. Our tour lasted a couple hours. We started in the area where logs entered the mill all the way to the distribution end where eighteen wheelers were picking up freshly manufactured OSB for delivery. It was interesting to see all the machinery but the big takeaway for me was understanding the importance of the mill’s equipment and employees. It was evident that everything in the mill was instrumental to the process and if one piece of machinery did not work the whole process would come to a halt very quickly. It served as a good reminder that everyone is equally important to the operation.
The following days we were able to get out to the woods and do some work. I figured we would be doing block layout because that is what we would have been doing in High Prairie if it were not for the fires but it turns out our main job was road staking. Road staking was basically just hanging ribbon through the woods where a logging road will soon go. It became clear very quickly that there were a lot of factors to consider when designing roads. One of these factors is deciding where to install crossings through watercourses. Another consideration is topography which may cause blind spots or steep roads. There was also the consideration of where rain will buildup which could cause washout. It is a lot to juggle, you need to consider the safety of loggers and truckers when they are going to use this road while making sure you design a road that will hold up for the next few decades. Ideally, your road would be straight with no blind spots but we quickly found out that is nearly impossible to achieve. We worked in groups of three in the woods. Before staking the road we would figure out the bearing at which the road travels and then we would each set our compass accordingly. From here it became monotonous, one person would shoot their bearing whilst the other went ahead until they were only just visible through the bush. From here you would call out “left” or “right” until they were in the center of your compass’s crosshairs. Once they were all lined up they would tie on a piece of ribbon and repeat the process. “Yup hang a ribbon right where your hard-hat is”. This job required a lot of attention to detail, it was repetitive yet every time you needed to be sure the other person was lined up well or else once the machinery came in to build the road it would not be straight. As one of my supervisor’s once said “It’s important you get it right and don’t cut any corners because once they build this road they won’t be able to fix small mistakes”.
I had the opportunity to see some stakeholder engagement as well. In the area where we were building a road there was a bear guide doing a hunt. Aidan, one of the other guys I worked with, always made a point of stopping to chat with him. I remember one day I ran into the outfitter when I was driving my four wheeler into an area and stopped to talk to him. It was a brief chat and I cannot remember exactly what I said but I wanted to make sure I was not interfering with his hunting and said “As long as I’m not in the way!” to which he replied “Oh no you’re never in the way you guys have always been great”. It showcased to me the importance of the forest Industry’s relationship with locals from the ground up. As a student I am not dealing with major stakeholder issues but it was nice to have a small friendly interaction which in my opinion holds great value.
Most days on our way to work we would see a black bear on the side of the road, the outfitter clearly picked a good hunting spot!
Here I am attaching a strap to my quad for a tow out. The trail we took to our work spot became flooded at one point and I ended up stuck. The others thought it was a good time for a picture.
Just as Travis and Audrey were a few weeks prior, the crew in Saskatchewan was more than welcoming. It was nice meeting new people and I am happy for the good memories I now share with them. I had a great experience in Saskatchewan and I am grateful that my management back in Alberta took the time to find a way for us to have work to do in a hectic time.
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