Most tree planters would agree. The industry has a high rate turnover so half the people who do it don’t stick around long enough to really wrap their minds around how bad it is. I spent over a decade in the industry and planted a little over 1.3 million in that time, but I don’t tell people about it IRL because I got sick and tired of cringing with my entire being every time someone thanked me for it.
The saddest part is that in my experience, companies doing carbon credits or naturalization projects do a far worse job than the logging companies. We had a recurring contract with the carbon farmer where we went to the same fields year after year and planted trees that immediately died due to poor stock selection and ground preparation. They don’t have the regulation and oversight that the logging companies do. They also profit from convincing people to pay them to plant so it is in their best interests those trees die so they can maximize their profits with less land use.
Logging companies have a financial interest in seeing the tree reach maturity. Carbon credit buyers don’t care.
Not only that, but the logging industry has a legal obligation to reforest areas they logged and ensure those trees reach free growing status. A legal obligation that is enforced better than most environmental regulations in the country. The logging companies wouldn’t plant trees AT ALL without it. In places like Russia where there isn’t that regulation, they just let the cut blocks regenerate slowly on their own because its so much cheaper.
So many people would thank me while I was retail during COVID 🙄 so stupid.
Can I ask why doing your job in retail wouldn’t have deserved thanks? Was it something to do with Covid specifically?
Nothing changed. It doesn’t deserve any more thanks than any other job. I wasn’t special I wasn’t a hero I was just a guy stocking groceries.
