Perseverance in the Face of a Pandemic
Unprecedented. It is a word you hear often these days. The meaning of the word is simple; “never done or known before.” As COVID-19 spread around the globe, ‘unprecedented’ became one of the most used words throughout the news cycle. News anchors and outlets around the world repeating the phrase ‘unprecedented times’ as country after country went into quarantine. Many of us sheltered at home wondering, would there be a tree planting season? But here we are 18 days in for some as of the writing of this and going strong.
It was no small effort.
Months of conference calls, planning, preparation, negotiations, purchasing, patience, and most importantly perseverance got us here.
I can only speak for myself but I cannot express enough my gratitude and appreciation for everyone who was involved with tree planting 2020 coming together and now keeping it together.
I highlight perseverance because from my unique perspective it is a quality I’ve have witnessed most in people recently. It is also one of the defining qualities that make a great tree planter. For without perseverance the land will swallow you, and for the few tree planters reading this, you will know what I mean more than anyone.
A tree planting camp having a social distancing movie night by projecting onto a truck.
I have been fortunate enough to spend time amongst the people and in the face of COVID-19, social distancing, isolation in camp, dwindling supplies of cigarettes and having to plant thousands of trees they persevere. It is incredibly inspiring to see all the hard work that went in prior to the season now manifesting itself.
But we cannot forget those whose boots are on the ground putting all this into practice. Cooks, camp attendants, COVID personnel, foremen, supervisors and the planters themselves. More has been asked of them then ever before and they persevere. Because these roles are already incredibly demanding, to see these people continue to succeed under new pressures and responsibilities is unprecedented perseverance during unprecedented times. Never before has a tree planting camp had to exist during a pandemic. Yet here we are, 18 days in as of the writing of this and going strong.
Unprecedented indeed.
By: Lucas ‘The Scrapman’ Rene de Cotret, Camp Logistics and Apprentice Automotive Technician
