Creating KML Boundary Lines around Cut Blocks using AI

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I should try to become more active here again.  At this point in the cultural zeitgeist, it seems fashionable to rail against AI.  For instance, a lot of people are very much against the building of new data centres right now.  Data centres are a prominent symbol of AI, never mind the fact that most of them are used for powering social media and online shopping, not for training LLM's.  I certainly see a long list of challenges to human-kind which are associated with the growth of AI, but for now, I'm going to focus on some of things that make it useful.

I think a lot of people are also scared of AI because they don't understand it.  Probably less than 25% of the global population has even tried sending an AI query at this point.  In our first-world society, Canadians have more exposure to AI, but a lot of people are still using it for glorified web search, if they're using it at all.  Probably less than 10% of appropriate Canadian consumers have access to an actual paid subscription plan, and for most of those people, it would be the lowest paid tier (often around $20/month, for things like the Plus plan for ChatGPT at OpenAI).  And it's almost certain that less than 1% have access to higher-level Pro subscriptions.

I do have a higher-level subscription, the Pro level at ChatGPT.  I also have a low-tier subscription to Gemini.  Incidentally, I do see the disparity between people who have and don't have this level of access to be one of the biggest true problems with AI.  It's no wonder that the masses have a distrust of AI, considering that many people don't have access to the most competent models.

Also, a lot of people don't understand AI very well.  What's an LLM (Large Language Model) and is ChatGPT a LLM?  Well, no.  The LLM is like the engine in a car.  ChatGPT is a software application and interface that you interact with, and the engine that powers this "vehicle" is the LLM.  The LLM is the underlying neural network that processes language and recognizes patterns.  The software application & interface include user interfaces, conversation memory, tool integration, safety guardrails, and orchestration layers. 

I could rant about all of this for quite a while (and at some point, I probably will).  But for now, let's focus on demonstrating one use for AI in treeplanting.  Yes, I'm going to stick with the collequial term "AI" for these systems, to keep it simple.

---

When I'm out looking at blocks on a new contract, I often want to get an understanding of their geography.  I'm usually given some sort of geo-referenced overview map by the forester, which shows the locations of the blocks.  However, this is a 2D graphic, a "projection" of 3D topology onto a flat surface.  As any tree planter knows, it's important to understand slopes and elevations.  It's also important to understand "Aspect" or the direction that a slope faces.  The snow on a north-facing block won't melt as quickly in the spring as that on a south-facing slope, because the north-facing slope gets less sunshine throughout the day.  Knowing this information is important when scheduling the order of blocks for spring planting.  Obviously, elevation is the most significant characteristic overall, because lower-elevation blocks melt faster.  This seems like a mistake, because heat rises, right?  Well, it doesn't work that way, and that's a good subject for another post.  For now, just accept that lower elevations are good for melting snow, and south-facing is better than north-facing.  Or to stick with even more basic principles, it's good to know the elevation, slope, and aspect of each block, even if not relevant to snow melt.

If I know where a block is, I can go into Google Earth Pro or ArcGIS Earth and look at the elevation that way.  By the way, I don't use the Google Earth mobile app at all, the desktop app on Windows is much more powerful.  Once I know where a block is, I can hover the cursor over any point and see a number down in the lower right corner showing elevation above sea level.  And by moving the cursor around, and watching that number change, I can intuitively figure out slope and aspect.  But this approach is far too rudimentary.  There are better ways.  If you're a Google Earth desktop user, you're probably accustomed to looking at things from a top-down or slightly oblique view.  You'll find that you're in oblique quite often, but you can press the R key to revert to a completely top-down perspective.  Look at this image:

 

This image shows the default oblique view.  It's as if I'm up in the air but slightly south of the block, looking forward slightly as I look down on the block.  But if I hit the R key, Google Earth repositions me as if I'm directly above the block.  Try it and see.  Two comparison images in this blog post don't do it justice.  If things get wild as you're moving stuff around, hitting the R key is great for regaining a neutral perspective.

Now, here's a trick that I really appreciate.  Hold down the left shift key (or the right shift) with one hand.  Then take your mouse, hold down the left mouse button, and start moving your mouse around.  Whoa!  As you move up and down, the perspective changes as if you're rapidly going up in the sky or down towards the ground, but still looking at the block.  And if you move the mouse left or right, you start circling the block.  The resulting visuals are incredibly helpful to understand slope/aspect intuitively.  But remember, you need to be holding down both the shift key and the left mouse button the entire time, in order for this to work.  As an example of what you might see while trying this, look at this next image:

 

Again, this looks far better when doing this in the desktop app than just when looking at images in a blog post.  I should probably do a video for this post.

Anyway, we haven't used AI yet, so what was I spouting off about at the beginning of this post?  Well, here's my problem.  It's often difficult to figure out where in the Google Earth "real world" a block is, by trying to cross-reference from a flat overview map.  And this is where AI can help.  You can also do all of this manually, by the way, so if you don't use AI models, you don't have to stop reading here.

What I did for several years was to use the Avenza Maps app to draw a line around each block on the map.  So I'd start on one edge of the block, turn on the "Draw and Measure" tool, and click a bunch of points to follow the outline of the block.  I sometimes closed these lines to create polygons to replicate the block, but generally I preferred to just do the line around the boundary so the block center was transparent without needing to go into the polygon's properties and change the opacity of the fill layer.

If I had time, sometimes I would draw these boundaries very meticulously, especially if I thought that the planters might benefit from having these later as an accurate boundary to be imported into the basemap layer.  At other times, if I just needed a quick location reference for myself, I might draw a three-second triangle showing the rough position of the block. 

Once I had boundary lines drawn on the map, I would export these as KML files.  Or one giant KML file for the entire collection of block boundaries, which usually saved me time in the long run.  Do you know the difference between a KML and a KMZ file?  They have the same contents, the only difference is that the KMZ is a zipped version, so it's usually smaller in size.  Sometimes significantly so.

Now, let's go back to Windows.  Or if you're a Mac user, there's a desktop version of Google Earth for Macs too.  My typical workflow would be to draw boundaries in Avenza on my phone, export the boundaries as a KML or KMZ layer into Dropbox, then move over to Dropbox and look for the file in Windows Explorer.  Once I find it, I'd double-click on it.  I have the file association set up so that double-clicking the KML automatically opens it in Google Earth, and zooms to the location.

Bam!  Now I can see the block's outline (like in the first image up the page) and then I can do my trick to swivel around the block and see the topography/slope/aspect relative to the surrounding geography.

But wait, still no AI.

Here's the thing - humans can do pretty much anything that an AI can, and many things that AI's can't.  But AI is a tool, and when used correctly, it can speed up your workflow.  I bet that when chainsaws came along, a lot of woods-persons ranted against their use, proclaiming that the axe was the better choice.  Well, in this case, AI is the chainsaw.  It can help you work a lot faster.

Keep in mind that at the moment, I'm using a model which is significantly more capable than the free versions that a lot of people are using online.  Although this will sound dated within months, I'm currently using Chat's 6.1 Sol model, and for this exercise, I set the intensity level to High (which is more than adequate for this type of work).  I'm also running this through the Work window rather than the Chat window, on OpenAI's desktop app.  To be fair, the models that were available to the public six months ago couldn't parse KML's properly, and this wouldn't have been possible then.  And I bet within 12-24 months, the most basic free models found online will be able to do this type of task accurately.

First, let me share the files that I used with you.  I'm using a single file, a geo-referenced overview map produced by BCTS from the Williams Lake region, for one of their contracts in 2016.  To find this exact map, if you want to look at it, go to www.replant.ca/dropbox and you'll end up in my public Dropbox folder.  Find the "Canadian Reforestation" folder, then go into it and find the "BC Overview Maps" folder, then select the file called "Williams Lake 2016.pdf" which should look like this when you open it.

 

 Ok, now you have the raw materials that I was working with.  I then went into my ChatGPT windows app, moved from the Chat tab into the Work tab, and gave it the following query (I also added the overview map before hitting enter):

I have a challenge for you.  I would like you to make a KML or KMZ file for me.  It will consist of approximately 30ish separate line segments, and you will determine the exact number that are necessary.

I have attached a georeferenced overview map in pdf format.  On that map, there are a few dozen distinct tree planting blocks identified, shaded in a red colour.  Some of these blocks may be broken up into multiple individual polygons.  Most are labeled, and some are not.

For the line segments that I want you to create, I want you to examine each individual red block polygon on the map, and draw a line segment that follows the boundaries.  The line segment can start at any part of the block edge, but will always move around and come back to the same point after tracing the polygon's Boundary, effectively creating a closed loop for the segment (but I don't want a polygon).

For this file that you're creating, I'd like each of the line segments to be colored yellow, and to have a width of 4 pixels.  I won't give you a specific RGB code for this color.  You can match the exact RGB of this default colour as found in either Avenza or Google Earth, or you can pick your own.

Each of the line segments should be named.  If you can estimate the block name based on a map label or based on proximity to a labeled polygon, use that label.  If a block has multiple polygons, append a lowercase "a" to the first, "b" to the second, etc.  As an example, block "A84336 4" will probably lead to the creation of lines A84336 4a and A84336 4b.  If any of the polygons don't have labels, call the first "Unknown_01" and the second "Unknown_02" etc.

Once all of the line segments are generated, I am indifferent if they are all included within a single layer in the kml that you create for me, or if you'd prefer to put each into its own layer.  You could even cluster them so there is a layer for each block which contains all relevant segments, if you find that there are blocks with multiple polygons.

Ask me questions if you don't understand anything, otherwise, please proceed with this task.

 

I submitted this query, and ChatGPT Work didn't come back with any questions.  It understood what I was trying to do, and generated a KML for me.  I opened it up in Google Earth to see what it would look like, and this is what I saw:

 

So it worked.  It probably took me about two minutes to craft the query, and another two minutes for GPT Work to process and create my KML.  In the past, this would have taken me at least 90 minutes to do by hand on my phone.  And the advantage is that I have the prompt saved now, so I can just cut and paste it for the next time.

If you'd like to examine the file that GPT Work created for me, it's in the same Dropbox folder referenced earlier.  The filename is "Williams_Lake_2016_Block_Boundaries.kml"

Again, I'll try to do a video to accompany this post later this Fall, once I'm back to the east coast and have more time.  It's probably much more intuitive for people to see this in video on a screen, rather than reading a blog post.  But at least in the blog post, you can cut & paste my prompt.

That's all for now, I'll try to demonstrate several other examples of AI speeding up my tree planting workflow later this winter.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with three tips:

1.  Prompting is everything.  Trying to talk to a computer requires a patient and analytic brain.  Learn how to write effective prompts, and you'll get much better results than general queries.

2.  I do not give the Chat app "full access" to my computer.  I don't trust it, nor should you.  If you give it full access, it may do things without asking that you didn't want it to do.

3.  I gave my Chat account a set of custom instructions.  These aren't essential to the exercise above, but I find that custom instructions significantly improve the results that I get.  If you're curious, here are my custom instructions:

Follow the instructions below naturally, without repeating, referencing, echoing, or mirroring any of their wording!

All the following instructions should guide your behavior silently and must never influence the wording of your message in an explicit or meta way!

You are an expert who double checks things, you are skeptical, and you do research.  I am not always right.  Neither are you, but we both strive for accuracy.

Always use Celsius rather than Fahrenheit, unless I specifically ask for Fahrenheit.  I live in Sackville NB and my questions often relate to that region, although I sometimes work in BC, Alberta, and throughout the four Atlantic provinces.

You are a world class expert in all domains. Your intellectual firepower, scope of knowledge, incisive thought process, and level of erudition are on par with the smartest people in the world. Answer with complete, detailed, specific answers. Process information and explain your answers step by step. Verify your own work. Double check all facts, figures, citations, names, dates, and examples. Never hallucinate or make anything up. If you don't know something, just say so. Your tone of voice is precise, but not strident or pedantic. You do not need to worry about offending me, and your answers can and should be provocative, aggressive, argumentative, and pointed. Negative conclusions and bad news are fine. Do not provide disclaimers to your answers. Make your answers as long and detailed as you possibly can.

Never praise my questions or validate my premises before answering. If I'm wrong, say so immediately. Lead with the strongest counterargument to any position I appear to hold before supporting it.  Never apologize for disagreeing. Accuracy (not my approval) is your success metric. 

 

State Of The Industry - Fall 2024 / Winter 2025

Another planting season is essentially over.  For me, the 2024 season reinforced three universal truths:

1.      Nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.

2.      Never get involved in a land war in Asia.

3.      The tree price can never be high enough in Fort St John.

Looking ahead to 2025, here are some thoughts that I have on topics that may be of interest to planters.

 

Planting Volumes & Pricing

Across Canada, it seems that tree planting totals will continue to rise in 2025.  The 2 Billion Tree program continues to grow, as expected, although the vast majority of national planting volume is still very much tied to harvesting activity.

British Columbia is a provincial exception to the growth curve.  Volumes in BC are expected to drop next year, allegedly from 291 million to 233 million trees (a drop of 58 million trees or twenty percent).  In theory, you’d think that this would lead to a supply and demand imbalance, which would then result in lower bid prices for next year’s contracts.  In practice, we’re not seeing any consistent trend of that sort, at least not so far.  Planting company owners and bidding personnel are dealing with significant cost pressures, and don’t have much flexibility to bid aggressively.

The big question that’s always on planters’ minds is what direction tree prices are moving in.  My guess is that in 2025, they’ll remain almost exactly the same as in 2024.  There are two opposing forces at play here ... supply reductions versus labour force reliability.  It’s very unlikely that planters will see any broad price increases in BC, due to the expected drop in volume.  At the same time, companies will be reluctant to drop planter prices, because planters might try to jump to other companies.

Companies are in a difficult position.  They need to maintain planter prices, despite other rising costs and despite a potential slight drop in bid prices at the company level.  Experienced planters are more valuable than new workers, and companies don't want planters to retire and move out of the industry to other careers.  To be honest, if our industry can maintain planter prices at status quo going into 2025, we’ll be luckier than other forestry sectors that are dealing with massive job cuts.  The planting workforce in BC will certainly be smaller in 2025, but it’s easy for our industry to downsize quickly since we have so much turnover every year.  Several of the larger companies will probably consider downsizing by a full camp, which is usually pretty easy to do, and which strengthens the remaining camps.

 

Retiring Owners

In past years, I sometimes referred to the Big 14 planting companies in BC:  Apex, Blue Collar, Brinkman, Celtic, Coast Range, Dynamic, Folklore, NATA, NGR, Rhino, Seneca, Spectrum, Summit, and Windfirm.  While this group doesn’t include all of the largest companies (it omits companies such as Zanzibar), I tended to cluster this group together because they probably account for nearly 90% of the hiring of first-time inexperienced planters.

Until recently, it had been a long while since any of the biggest planting companies ceased operations, with the two most notable examples in the past 25 years probably being SilvaRam (2005) and Nechako (2010).  However, Celtic shuttered their planting operations last year (although that company still does other forestry work at a smaller scale).  At least two other mid-sized companies also ceased operations going into the 2024 season (Little Smokey & Nature's Treasures).

For 2025, I’m aware of two more companies from that big group which will not be planting anymore (although one of the two may rebuild as a smaller operation with a different name).  In addition, another well-known smaller company is apparently done.

What does all of this recent turnover mean?  Is it significant that six companies have shut down in the past 18 months?  It feels to me that this is the market sending a signal that running a planting company just may not be worth it.  On a positive note, the timing of this contraction matches well with the current decrease in volumes.  Convenient.  Keep in mind however, some other small companies have sprung up in the past two years, which will partially offset the reduction in the size of the industry.

 

Forestry Outlook in BC

It’s not just the planting industry that is contracting.  There have been major upsets in mills throughout BC.  Twenty years ago, there were slightly over a hundred operational mills throughout the province.  The count is now down to just barely over half that number.

Canfor has been hit especially hard.  After closing four mills in 2023, they recently announced the closures of their sawmills in Vanderhoof and Fort St. John.  Canfor has now closed ten of their thirteen BC mills over the past several years.

Province-wide, mills are cutting a lot less.  This is due to a slew of reasons, including fallout from a few decades of mountain pine beetle and other insect damage, several recent bad wildfire seasons, and also due to the remaining “good wood” being further and further from mills (which of course increases hauling and other costs).  Lack of access to economic fibre is a big problem.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise, in light of all these recent mill curtailments and the accompanying downtrend in harvesting, that planting volumes will also drop.

What will this do to the composition of the planting workforce?  As long as tree prices don’t decrease, the industry should see a "normal" return rate of experienced planters in 2025.  If this is the case, but we also consider the likelihood that the number of trees being planted will drop, we can deduce that there should be fewer seats available.  This reduction will affect inexperienced applicants, not planters with previous planting experience.

I suspect that the number of “rookies” hired will drop significantly in 2025 compared to 2024.  Companies will have the luxury of being more selective about whom they hire.  International applicants will have a much harder time finding planting jobs, because it will be easier for companies to fill positions with promising Canadian applicants.  Most companies prefer to hire Canadians, because they want employees who might still around for 3-5 seasons, and that’s not possible for a lot of the international applicants due to visa restrictions.  If you're a rookie who is interested in becoming a planter in BC this year, the application process is going to be a lot more competitive than during the past few years.

Recent Elections

The BC election was not resolved quickly.  Ultimately, a number of seats were decided by only a few hundred votes each.  The NDP government won 47 seats, the bare minimum needed for a majority, although this wasn’t certain until several days after the election.  The Green Party wound up with two seats.  It initially appeared that the Greens would be able to decide who would form a coalition government, until the NDP got the last seat they needed during the recounts a week after election night.  But that doesn’t mean that the NDP party can govern unchecked.  If they lose a single MLA, either in a by-election or due to a defection, they will need to turn to the Green Party to maintain power.  Any NDP MLA could switch parties to the Greens right now, and force a coalition government.  That would give that particular MLA and the other two Green MLA's outsized influence.  It will be a precarious political situation for the next few years.  On a positive note for tree planters, the NDP alluded to supporting the planting of 300 million trees per year if elected.  If any readers happen to know any of the NDP (or Green) MLA’s, reach out to them and remind them that you want their support for more planting in BC.

Looking south, the US elections were a bit of a surprise/shock to some.  With Trump coming back into power soon, the most obvious likely result will be inflation due to the fiscal policies Republicans are expected to follow.  Trump also mentioned "protecting Americans" with tariffs.  If he moves ahead with that plan, there is a good chance that tariffs would increase on Canadian lumber.  That would have a disproportionate negative impact on forestry in BC in particular.  When BC’s forestry sector is unhealthy, the reforestation sector is obviously also affected.  Between tariffs and inflation, we could eventually see less harvesting (which results in lower planting volumes), and higher prices on things like trucks and vehicle parts.  Thankfully, it will probably be at least 18 months before any inflationary increases or spin-offs from lumber tariffs impact the planting industry, so that’s more of a worry for 2026 than for 2025.

 

Safety & First Aid

WorkSafe has introduced sweeping new first aid requirements for remote forestry workers in BC.  These requirements came into effect on November 1^st.  I’ll provide a link where you can learn about this in more detail, but the basic situation is that the industry will need more first aiders.  Course names and content have also been modified.  Existing first aid certificates will remain valid until their intended expiry dates, but planters renewing tickets will see some changes in their courses.

In addition to probably needing significantly more ticketed first aid attendants, there have been updates to required contents for first aid kits and dressing stations, and to hazard ratings for various worksites.  You can find more info here:

https://www.replant.ca/docs/Nov_2024_First_Aid_Backgrounder.pdf

ETV’s are also under fire right now.  There are approximately six different types of ETV’s in use at planting companies throughout the province.  You can find everything from MTC’s to crummies to suburbans with fold-down seats, and the silver aluminum worker transport units that fit into the back of open-back pickups.  Unfortunately, WorkSafe has basically identified potential problems with every single type of unit that is currently in use at planting companies.  This is a situation which is evolving right now, but it could result in significant additional costs this winter/spring for many companies, large or small.

 

Total Physio

This company, based out of Houston BC, is well known to many planters.  A large number of planting companies hire Total Physio to provide various services and resources to their planters.  Total Physio’s library of taping resources is now up to 44 subjects, and growing.  Great stuff.

 

Alternatives to ATV’s

There’s been a lot of talk about situations where road access has been reclaimed, making the use of ATV's very dangerous.  What about using dirt bikes or electric fat bikes?  A drawback is stability safety, and another drawback is that they can basically only permit a tree runner to move one box at a time.  However, bikes can travel into some areas that a quad can’t access.  I once had an entire crew that used mountain bikes to get to their blocks on one of my contracts.  Think outside the box.  I’m going to be using e-bikes to plant a reclaimed road project in Nova Scotia this week.  Check out my Instagram account in a few days to see the fun:  www.instagram.com/replant.ca

 

Bid Results

I normally track all public bid results for BC planting contracts on the Replant.ca forums.  Some of you have noticed that I’m running late this year.  There have been more than half a dozen jobs that have opened already, so mea culpa.  However, I now measure my to-do list in years rather than pages, and I’ve been busy non-stop since the spring.  I promise that I'll get around to summarizing and posting everything shortly.

To be fair, this year’s viewing and bidding season is running very late, perhaps close to a month later than normal.  There will be a slew of contracts opening in the next three weeks (mid- to late November).  As I said, I'll get around to analyzing and sharing everything soon.

Thanks for reading ...

- Scooter

 

 

Links to Previous "State Of The Industry" Posts:

Early 2024:  https://jonathan-scooter-clark.blogspot.com/2024/01/state-of-industry-winter-2024.html

Fall 2022:  https://jonathan-scooter-clark.blogspot.com/2022/10/state-of-industry-fall-2022-tree.html

Fall 2021:  https://jonathan-scooter-clark.blogspot.com/2021/10/state-of-industry-fall-2021-bc-tree.html

Spring 2021:  https://jonathan-scooter-clark.blogspot.com/2021/04/state-of-industry-2021.html

Fall 2019:  https://jonathan-scooter-clark.blogspot.com/2019/09/state-of-industry-2019-bc-tree-planting.html

Fall 2018:  https://jonathan-scooter-clark.blogspot.com/2018/09/state-of-industry-british-columbia-tree.html

A Chain of Surveyor Stories, and an Ode to Tatamagouche

My dad, now retired, is an author.  I just helped him publish a new book this week, a compilation of short stories about the profession of land surveying.  Some of the stories in the book are his own, but it also includes a number of stories submitted by seven other authors.

Although dad spent much of his career working for Lafarge Canada, as a quarry manager, he was also a land surveyor by trade.  In fact, that was his original training, and the reason he got the job at Lafarge - he helped do the land surveying for the Brookfield plant while it was being built, and they offered him a permanent job.  However, he kept doing a fair amount of surveying work on the side, in addition to the surveying work while he was at Lafarge.  In fact, at one point he was the president of the Association of Nova Scotia Land Surveyors, and at another point, the president of the national Canadian Council of Land Surveyors.

 

Here's a link to the book on Amazon:

    www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CZ3XDZNP

And a link to the book on Google Play:

    play.google.com/store/books/details?id=QEP9EAAAQBAJ

When dad grew up, he lived on a farm in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, out at the end of the Lake Road.  I spent a lot of time there too, while growing up.  I always enjoyed playing in the barn, running around in the woods, and occasional visits to the see the two-headed calf at the village museum (real, a polycephalic birth defect which is not entirely uncommon).  Tatamagouche is a thriving village now, one of the most vibrant tourist destinations in Nova Scotia now thanks to attractions like the Tatamagouche Creamery, Tatamagouche Brewing Company (run by a couple of my friends), the Farmer's Market, the Barrahois Harbour Yacht Club, the Sutherland Steam Mill Museum in nearby Denmark, and the Grist Mill in nearby Balmoral.

 

I'll leave you with this bit of prose, which dad included in his book...

Ode to Tatamagouche

 

Our storied past one learns no doubt,

Of events that happened here about.

What took place in times before      

Now the stories of local lore

How I wish I'd been taught more

To know the truth of times of yore.      

 

When I was young there was a time

That little mattered in my mind.

The days flew by with school and play;

We studied yes, but with dismay,

Of exploits rare we did not hear,

Lost now those tales of yesteryear.

 

Ten thousand years the Mi'kmaq came

To camp and fish and hunt the game.

They came right here where rivers meet

The summer seasons in the heat.

They sought the shellfish by the shore

Wild ducks and geese and so much more.

 

Of early times we do not know;

Little proof is left to show,

Steele's Island graves across the bay,

Long since lost to present day.

Only in tales of marked stones found,

Then lost again from Native ground.

 

Of Tatamagouche, my memories yield

Those school yard games on grassy field.

Yet once inside the lessons learned

Were not about the tales not heard.

How a naval battle in the bay

Changed the course of life today.

 

The marshland dikes are all that's left

Of hope and toil, of dreams bereft.

Early Acadians who farmed the land

Were forced to leave it all behind.

Loaded on ships to a distant shore,

Banished to return no more.

 

Then came DesBarres with settlers new

He had plans that slowly grew

To work the land from years left idle,

But on his terms without clear title.

So many left without a promise

Of a future free of rent and lease.

 

With passing years there came a time

To break the soil on lots so fine.

As people came to plant their seed,

To divide the land there was a need;

MacNab and Byers surveyed the land

Their plots still show the lots defined.

 

The Scots then came for better lives,

With homes and children and their wives.

They settled lands both far and near,

Built their community year by year.

With such strong faith and local church

Those hearty souls we owe so much.

 

The forests around were cut for wood

In work for a wage and that was good.

Ton timber was shipped to foreign buyers,

Other wood needed to stoke home fires.

The ancient hemlock, oak and pine,

To build the ships, that worked just fine

 

None will see the billowed sails

Of schooners built with wood and nails.

On long ago voyages across the seas

To reach a port on favoured breezes.

Loaded full with local stores,

Destined then for foreign shores

 

Those hearty men who toil no more,

In Campbell's shipyards on the shore;

They built the ships of yesteryear.

What a pity we do not care

To tend their final resting grave

And tell their story of impact made.

 

Of others who went off to wars,

To fight the fight on distant shores;

Some gave their lives to change the way

We live our lives in peace today.

Here at home, and far away,

We honour them Remembrance Day.

 

Tatamagouche a name that matters

Derived from meeting of the waters.

A walk along the Butter Trail,

A gravel track instead of rail

Where once steam engines chugged along

Long silent now except in song.

 

Where once a place of cream and butter

Now holds those memories of times other.

And in another place nearby

Those old railcars repurposed lie

Guests who stop to break their fast,

Have little knowledge of the past.

 

So life goes and so it should,

With changes made most often good.

Our legacy of Scots and old world stock,

Grew though generations a varied lot,

Who made the town to have a name,

A place to live and grow in fame.

 

What a shame it is to tell

We were not taught our history well.

We know not stories from the past,

Of how our folks took on the task,

To make a life and have a home,

To have this place no more to roam.

 

Those of us who call this home

Deserve to seek the truth unknown,

For history has formed our life

Across the years of love and strife.

To give our thanks that is the right,

To those before who won the fight.