I spent 2 years in Belize, Central America. While I was there, I spent quite a bit of time in the jungle and on logging operations. The climate is very different from southern Ontario. They have a dry season and a rainy season, but it’s always hot. That’s why I decided to plant trees in Belize.

Years ago when I was in college I took a 2 year horticulture program. What fascinated me most were the arboriculture classes. I had thought about setting up a tree farm for years, but when I got to the point of planting, a ‘killjoy’ would steal the limelight by making a comment like, “yeah, you’ll be growing those trees for your kids.” That would stop me in my tracks. Trees in Canada are a very long term project and they were right. I would never see the money. Do not misunderstand. I love my children, but it is very likely that I will also need money in the future. That comment held me back for years because I felt it was more careful to put money into a Registered Retirement Savings Plan than to invest in my children’s retirement. I would leave it all to my children anyway, so there was no point in taking the risk and possibly becoming a burden to them in my old age. Then we moved to Belize for 2 years and everything changed.

As I mentioned before, I spent a lot of time in the jungle but also driving through the countryside and visiting tree plantations. There are a couple of large teak plantations in the southern part of Belize. That’s where the itching came back. I needed to start a tree farm. I teamed up with a fellow Canadian and started researching. The 2 most popular woods used for lumber in Belize are mahogany and Spanish cedar. We bought a cleared piece of land, got some seeds and opened a nursery. Our research showed that these 2 trees would grow well on the land we had purchased and that both trees grew about an inch in diameter each year. That would give us trees with a trunk diameter of 25 inches by the time I was 60 years old. That was very exciting. We thought we should supplement our plantation with some teak, even though we were a bit further north in the country. Teak would grow at about the same rate under ideal conditions, but we didn’t have those conditions. We plant around 10 thousand teak. Wood is expensive and the real advantage of teak is that it regenerates. You can cut down a teak tree and almost immediately a new shoot will emerge from the side of the stump and grow into a new tree. This can happen up to seven generations. That would take care of my children too.

I would love to tell you that everything has been roses since we planted, but that would not be the case at all. Mahogany and Spanish cedar trees have a borer problem that causes the tips of the branches to die. It seems there is nothing we can do about it except prune. The teak is growing slower than we expected due to soil and weather conditions. However, our hope is that second generation teak will grow much faster because the trees will already have established roots. We have a full-time worker on the plantation who we pay to look after the place and maintain it. After 5 years, the trees should be large enough to grow on their own. Now we wait for the harvest.

I believe that anyone can plant trees and that there will probably always be a demand for wood. In current market conditions, I’m glad I have money on trees instead of a Registered Retirement Savings Plan. I encourage everyone to plant some trees for retirement or for your children. The environment will benefit greatly for years to come.