National Network for Equitable Library Service

In 1983, at nineteen, Greg Nolan was hired (reluctantly) by his older sister's boyfriend—a treeplanting contractor based in Northern British Columbia. His crewmates didn't know what to think of the wide-eyed kid whose mom drove him the 750 kilometres to hook up with his first job. But within a week, Nolan was hitting the thousand-trees-a-day mark. By the end of his first rookie season, he gained the status of top producer among a crew of extraordinary young men and women. Over the course of his twenty-seven-year career, he planted over two-and-a-half-million trees.