THE SPICY PEPPER CHRONICLES
50 GB worth of work, 5 hotel rooms, 3 months and many great experiences later, my time in Chile has come to an end! The co-op work term really flew by, and I can’t believe how much things changed throughout the summer, how many things I learnt, how many new people I met, and how many places I visited.
There are many differences in forestry here and in BC. In Chile, forestry is all about intensively managed plantation forestry. Chile's forested land is highly concentrated in the hands of a few major companies, principally those connected with the paper industry. Second growth forests in BC are not strictly considered plantations (although they are), and they are less intensively managed: the plantations try to consider the ecology of the site in terms of choice of species and management. In Chile, it involves mainly two species (radiata pine and eucalyptus), and things like thinning, brushing and fertilizing, spacing, etc. are carried out. These trees grow FAST, so rotation periods are way shorter (14-20 years depending on the species. Nothing compared to the 80-200 years in BC). There is also no conversion of native forests anymore (in terms of the company I was working for), which is where big bucks come from in BC (100-year-old red cedar = $$$). The safety for outside contractors really impressed me as well – there have to be special designated vehicles that meet certain specifications (tools can’t go in the same vehicle, for example, they have to go in a box on top of the brand new van). I also worked for a different level in the hierarchy of the company, not at the forest operation level like I did in BC, so I also got to witness how the big-decision-making process worked and how changes slowly trickled down the veins of the company.
If you are reading this you probably have me on Facebook so that’s were the Chile album will be, it’ll be a pretty fat one...
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