TREE-PLANTING BECOMING FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT IN CANADA

With the current youth unemployment rate for Canadians ages 15 to 24 at 13.6 per cent, tree-planting has become an appealing profession for those who are willing to put up with the less-than-ideal conditions. 

Jordan Watson, a former tree-planter and graduating biomedical engineering student at the University of Western Ontario, says he has several friends who plant full-time instead of going to school. 

They plant all over Canada during the spring, summer and fall seasons, and then head to Australia to plant over the winter. 

For Brontie Hladysh, who is 22  it's more than a summer job. In a tight job market, it has become the way she makes her living and finances her travels. 

Hladysh, who went to Wilfrid Laurier University for a year before dropping out to pursue a more alternative lifestyle, has used her planting money so far to go to Whistler, Australia and Southeast Asia. 

She'll be heading out to British Columbia to plant this spring to fund her next trip to Europe. 

• Hladysh,  decided to go planting with her sister after hearing about the job from a friend. When she planted her last tree in her first season, she swore she would never go back. But four years later, she’s getting ready for another season. 
• "I get through it knowing at the end of it all I’ll be off somewhere and this is the fastest way to get the money to do that," says Hladysh, who planted 110,000 trees in two months during her last season in Ontario. 

And she's not alone. With the challenges facing graduates who are trying to find scarce entry-level positions in the professions they've studied for, tree-planting companies are seeing a shift from predominantly student planters who are looking to make tuition and rent money, to more young people who are making it their full-time career.
Tree planting is very physically and mentally draining, it’s very tough, says Melissa Hakojarvi, co-owner of Treeline Reforestation, a company based in northeastern Ontario. 

Source: CBC