Forestry Workers Co-operative

15/03/2024

Looking for paid tree planters!

12p/tree in mounds Galloway Central (Glenkens and around) Contract work with FLS

No pesticides or chemicals

Looking for planters with live in vehicle or car and caravan
We have onsite welfare including wood burner clothes drying, phone charging, shower and cooking facilities

Two shop trips per week in coop 4x4 we also commute to smaller sites from a forest camp.

We own a quad bike so we can get trees as close to the work area each day as possible minimising deadwalking trees into a site.

Most sites in Galloway are sandy mounds, peaty mounds, shale mounds; occasionally stoney, very occasionally clay. Sites are usually pretty slashy and rough.

Full training provided beginners can expect to plant 800 trees per day within a day or two, 1000+ trees per day within a week or two. Invoiced weekly. New recruits can expect to learn a lot over the first two weeks!

Planting to finish the season so we expect FLS to call off the work some time in July when it becomes too hot for the seedlings.

Ideal candidate would have wellies, army boots, rubberised rain gear, van/vehicle and have something they want to save money for.

We have some spare BushPro planting harnesses and spades to loan out but folks who like it usually get their own gear in the end.

Get in touch for more info.

05/12/2021

Work photos of the Montane Willow planting project for Cairngorms Connect and RSPB Abernathy June 2021. This project seeks to connect existing populations of endangered willow species throughout the Loch A'an basin. The FWC planted the first 3000 seedlings over the first week after the winter snow began to melt. Sometimes walking in would take 3 hours but the rewards were seeing some of the last surviving wild downy willow in Scotland!

21/11/2021

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

The Forestry Workers Cooperative are specialists in conservation and commercial tree planting.

our crew of professional planters has an average annual output of between 600,000 to 900,000 of the highest quality seedlings per year. We consistently receive praise for our exceptional quality.

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞

Established in 2014, the Forestry Workers Co-op was created to provide equitable employment for tree planters and give them a chance to organise their own employment conditions.

Cooperative members are responsible for the contracts we take on in entirety. As members and planters we to consider both the micro scale of work sites, such as best placement for each seedling, and on the macro scale the full control of a project’s overall aim and challenges.

We excel at technical contracts such as Montane scrub planting, native tree contracts, and hedgerows.

𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐨𝐧𝐬

We are optimistic that tree planting can help achieve a healthier human relationship with the planet. There is no doubt that the UK has suffered some of the most extreme deforestation of native woodland of any country in the world. Training new planters in the methodology to reforest effectively and be individually profitable while doing this work is an important part of the continued effort to expand tree planting.

As an environmentally conscious and driven team, care for each tree, respect for the environment and analysis of the future forests we are creating are important parts of our mind-set whilst working.

Many of the seedlings we work with, such as Salix lapponum, are threatened or at risk species as defined by the Join Nature Conservation Committee UK [https://sac.jncc.gov.uk/habitat/H4080/].

Handling such valuable and difficult to produce seedlings with care, ensuring their success, and placing them with a view to generating mature trees capable of healthy, wild, self-seeding forests are all in a day’s work for our members.

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

Commercial restock is a mainstay of our income. The rigours of commercial tree planting hone the tree planters’ skills in placement, care, and respect for trees. Planters who cannot plant hundreds of thousands of seedlings of the highest quality will not be able to show the required care for threatened species.

We do not take on work involving chemical treatment of any kind.

𝐏𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞

The Forestry Workers' Co-op are proud to be employers in the Scottish rural economy.

In order to garner the respect of the planter and gain their dedication to the quality we demand, we are committed to offering the highest rates of pay in forestry for tree planting. As a not for profit workers’ co-op we are in a good position to achieve this; there is no possibility of a portion of income going to shareholder profit. Any surpluses generated are re-invested into equipment, facilities, and training as specified by our members through consensus agreement.

Welfare of planters is at the heart of our business. We operate two heated welfare units and train every new intake in first aid. We provide 4x4s for our planters to travel to work so they don't have to damage their own vehicles on forestry roads. Reducing the number of vehicles travelling to the work site each day also limits our emissions to the minimum possible.

𝐈𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

The UK and Scotland have an outstanding natural heritage, and we are an upcoming part of this. Our focus in conservation and regenerative forestry, and our social investment in the welfare of workers, places us firmly apart from our competitors.

𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡

If you are looking to have tree planting work completed, please get in touch by the email listed below.

Similarly, if you are looking to work with us please get in touch by email. We will inform you of upcoming projects and add you to a list of interested parties. We interview all applicants before offering any jobs.

𝐄𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨:
[email protected]

Habitat account of Habitats Directive feature H4080, Sub-Arctic Salix spp. scrub. The Habitats Directive: selection of Special Areas of Conservation in the UK, second edition, JNCC (2002)

21/11/2021

Some old photos to wet yir teeth