Clay Plager-Unger, Field Projects
Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: May 28-June 1, 2007
It rained consistently from last Wednesday through
Saturday night. Although very late this year, they have been real rainy
season rains, every night, almost all night long. Some people are talking
about delayed rains since they were never that strong during the actual
rainy season. The climate has definitely changed from winter (typically wet
season, hotter and sunnier) to summer (typically dry season, cooler and
cloudier), except for the rains. We haven't had multiple days of rain in a
row all year until now. We'll have to see how long they last, but they've
been great for our trees.
[Click on photo for larger version]
Another week began with a greenhouse trip. We turned
compost, cut Caña tubes, and took some big Guarango trees to replace the
nine trees that died at Maria Dolores. Some of us stayed home finishing up
Bioregional Education materials for the class which begins on Wednesday.
On Tuesday we installed cut Caña tubes at Bosque
Encantado. It's quite a feat carrying sacks of bamboo up the hillsides to
where there is a site of over one hundred trees. Fortunately the numbers of
volunteers are strong these days.
On Wednesday a group went to buy and cut more Caña.
Others were working on some bunk beds being built for one of our rooms, so
it can hold four volunteers instead of only three. That will bring the total
spaces for volunteers in the house up to six. Lise and I put the finishing
touches on the Bioregional Education booklets and had them printed
(photocopied). That afternoon we handed them over to the latest class of
bioregionalists, twenty bright students who will receive bi-weekly
instruction from Ramon. Look for reports from him in the coming weeks.
On Thursday the Bellavista neighborhood invited Planet
Drum to help out with some of the environmental work that they are doing. We
helped them plant some trees and did maintenance on their greenhouse. I took
a trip to La Universidad Catolica to get a signature from the director for
the Cordillera el Balsamo private protected areas group. While there we
discussed the idea of using the greenhouse at the Bahia campus as a model
for the two other campuses they have in Portoviejo and Chone. It is possible
to start eco-clubs at the other schools to get interested students together.
We would then help them construct their own greenhouses; and show them how
our current greenhouse is run. They would then be able to maintain the
greenhouses on their own and with just a periodic check in. Clearly this
project will take some time, but I think it's quite feasible. Thursday night
two new volunteers showed up: Farhad and Angela from Berkeley California.
There are currently eight volunteers, four of whom are staying at the Hostal
Bahia Bed and Breakfast.
On Friday there was a field trip into the woods of
Fanca to hike through some of the dry tropical forest we are working to
restore. Jaime led the group along the ridge between the El Toro and Fanca
watersheds, in which there are multiple reforestation sites. Along with a
great view of Bahia at the mouth of the river Chone, we saw hundred year old
Guayacan, large Caoba, Ceibo, Dormilon, Seca, and Matapalo, among other
trees. It was a beautiful hike and everyone enjoyed getting to see what the
trees in the greenhouse will look like in twenty, fifty and a hundred years.
I'm taking a couple weeks of vacation, part of which I
will be heading back to my home town of Philadelphia. I'll be leaving our
most senior volunteer Lise in charge, so she'll be taking care of the next
two reports. See you all again in two weeks.
Nos vemos. Cuídense.
Clay
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Lise Tjorring
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: June 4-June 8, 2007
It has been a busy and interesting week. Clay has gone on a holiday to
his homeland and left us with a long list of things to do, but at the same
time new volunteers have arrived to help out with these tasks. The Planet
Drum work force increased with two new volunteers this week, Maria from
Argentina and Melissa from California. Maria studies biology and
environmental science and speaks fluent Spanish and English, and Melissa,
also a Spanish speaker, studies literature and environmental science back
home. We are now 10 volunteers, and with such a big team we have had time to
get a lot more involved with the community.
We started the week with a good clean-up of the house and the bodega
(storeroom) downstairs. Two volunteers went to the greenhouse to check on
our trees, do watering and empty the compost. In the afternoon I took a
group of volunteers up to the neighborhood of Maria Auxiladora to celebrate
El Dia del Niño (Children’s Day) with the kids. We had a fun afternoon
singing, dancing and playing games.
Tuesday was dedicated to art. We went to El Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas
Park and brought one of the entrance signs back to the house to repaint.
Other volunteers painted colorful signs for the greenhouse, so that
volunteers and visitors can easily identify the different tree species. We
also had a couple of volunteers working on designing new presentation signs
for Planet Drum displays, as some of them were damaged by water last time we
used them.
On Wednesday a couple of volunteers stayed back in the house to cut Caña
trunks. The rest of us went to our site in Don Pepe to install Caña tubes
there. The ground was hard, but we managed to install tubes for all the
trees, and we should be able to water the site more efficiently now without
having problems with water running down the steep hill.
On Thursday we did the same procedure as Wednesday. A couple of people
stayed in the house preparing Caña tubes for the next day and our by now
well-experienced tube installing team went to our la Cruz site to install
about 75 tubes. The process went smoothly. The ground was more humid than at
the Don Pepe site the day before, and it was a lot easier to dig holes for
the tubes. One of our volunteers went with Ricardito on a field trip to
Charapoto to get a truck load of rice hulls. Within the next week we are
going to put handfulls of rice hulls on all our trees. The rice hulls are
going to decompose slowly and through this process create nutrients for the
trees, while also providing excellent mulch.
Friday morning ten school kids and their teacher knocked on our door. All
the kids had prepared questions and wanted to know about what we do and how
they could help to protect the environment. They were very interested in
coming to help us one day and within the next couple of weeks we will take
them on a trip to our greenhouse. Later that day we divided into groups. A
couple of people stayed in the house cutting the last load of Caña tubes
that are going to be put in el Toro on Monday. Another group finished
painting the signs for the greenhouse and the entrance sign for El Bosque en
Medio de las Ruinas. The rest of us took bags of rice hulls to the sites at
la Cruz, Don Pepe and Maria Dolores.
The week finished off by going fishing with some of our local friends in
Bellavista. We caught 10 big fish, cooked them on the fire and had a feast!
Con conciencia verde,
Lise
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Lise Tjorring
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: June 11-June 15, 2007
With
six volunteers staying in the Planet Drum house and five volunteers staying
in the Bahia B&B Inn we manage to get a lot of work done. New people keep
showing an interest in what we are doing. We got an 11th volunteer to help
us out this week when Tom, a traveler from Australia, passed through town
and offered his work skills. It hasn't rained for a while and usually this
means watering every day, but because of the big group, we managed to get a
lot more done than just watering including a field trip to our good friend
Orlando's farm at the end of the week.
The week started off by sending two volunteers to the
greenhouse to water, weed and empty the compost. Having so many people
working for Planet Drum also means that the compost bin fills up twice as
fast! The rest of us filled up Ricardito's truck with Caña tubes, sacks of
rice hulls, the hole diggers and machetes and went to El Toro to install the
very last load of tubes for our trees. Watering from now on is going to be a
lot easier and more effective because of Caña tubes. While there, a few
handfuls of rice hulls were placed at the base of each tree to help maintain
soil humidity and provide mulch. Rice hulls decompose more slowly than
leaves so we don't need to replace them as often.
[Caña
tubes ready to be installed]
Ecuadorian life can have an unpleasant surprises at
times. On Tuesday three of our volunteers stayed in bed with food poisoning.
The rest went to sites at Maria Dolores and Don Pepe to water. Usually
watering these sites means that each of us has to carry 4 gallons of water
on the 20 minute walk from the greenhouse, after we fill up the jugs, to the
sites. However, we were lucky as the local petrol station offered to supply
water, so from now on watering these two sites is going to be an easier job.
On Wednesday we split into two groups. One group went
with Ricardito to Bosque Encantado to water and put rice hulls on the trees
there. In the afternoon one of the volunteers went to help out Ramon with
Bioregional Education, while the rest of us went to La Cruz to water. We
also managed to establish a water source there as one of the residents
nearby has offered to supply water from now on. It is really nice to see how
interested and helpful the residents are.
On
Thursday most of us went to the greenhouse. A lot of the seeds planted in
the seed beds have sprouted and the morning was spent transplanting them
into plastic bottles, where they will continue to grow until the planting
season next rainy season. Also, new colorful signs made for each tree
species in the greenhouse as well as the repainted entrance sign were
installed. The greenhouse is shining! On our way back we passed through
sites at Don Pepe and Maria Dolores to water there for the second time this
week. It has not rained for a while, and because these two sites get a lot
of sun exposure they need watering twice a week. In the afternoon three
volunteers went to Bosque en el Medio de las Ruinas to water. Afternoon
watering is beneficial to avoid the hot midday sun and if our schedules
demand doing more of this. The residents in this neighborhood are also
supplying us with water, so even though this is our biggest site, watering
does not take that long. All of our sites now have on-location water
sources, minimizing the amount we have to move water around, just in time
for the dry season, too. Our afternoon group also started painting a second
entrance sign to Bosque en el Medio de las Ruinas.
We finished off the week by going on a field trip to
Orlando's farm in San Isidro on Friday. His family has a house in a
beautiful spot an hour's drive inland from Bahia. We feasted on fresh
bananas and oranges, cooked fresh fish on a wood stove for lunch, and went
on a hike up to a little waterfall in the afternoon.
[Field trip to San Isidro.]
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Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: June 18-22, 2007
Things can change so quickly here! I went back to the
US for a short family visit and left one of the volunteers, Lise, in charge
of taking care of the Drum family. Many thanks for her help and wonderful
reports. I returned to a brand new house of volunteers and a new season as
well. Farewell wishes to Lise, Andy, Jim and Rox. Thanks for making the most
of your time in Bahia and all the work you gave to Planet Drum. You will be
missed.
It is now definitely into summer, the dry season, which
means watering on a very regular basis. Fortunately volunteer numbers are
still in the double digits so we can cover more ground easily. Also, the
tube watering system has drastically cut down on the time that it takes to
water the trees. Hardly any water is wasted in runoff down hillsides, and
each tree only takes a few seconds to load up with water. The rice hulls put
down around the trees also seem to be doing a great job of maintaining soil
humidity. So despite the repetition of watering trees, this process is going
nice and smoothly. And the planted trees are looking nice and healthy.
This week was pretty much defined by watering. On
Monday we went to the greenhouse, and watered the trees and seed beds, and
also collected some Guachepeli seeds from some nearby trees and planted them
in fresh seed beds in order to stockpile more trees for next year's
planting. Hopefully regular watering of the seed beds will facilitate seed
germination. From the greenhouse we walked over to the Maria Dolores and Don
Pepe sites and took care of watering trees.
Tuesday we watered at the La Cruz and El Toro
reforestation sites. A small group went to transplant one hundred Algarobo
seedlings which sprouted by the side of the road near the beach. Cleanup
crews with trucks will be trampling the area and the Algarobos would have
been crushed if not moved. After taking the trees out of the ground, they
were taken to the greenhouse and transplanted them into 3-liter bottles with
fresh batches of soil prepared with our own compost.
On Wednesday a group went to Bosque en Medio de las
Ruinas to water the trees there and put down rice hulls. A couple of
volunteers headed to the greenhouse to water seed beds while others took
care of installing tubes and watering some trees at an "extra" site planted
at La Cruz.
Thursday we dropped off compost at the greenhouse and
did some watering. A dozen Guachepeli that were growing into the ground
itself went to Bosque Encantado to plant at the entrance. It's late in the
season, but the trees had to be moved out to make room for next years
seedlings. Hopefully they will be alright despite being planted late. On the
way we watered the Maria Dolores and Don Pepe sites again, and also watered
the Bosque Encantado site while there.
On Friday some of us went to Bosque en Medio de Las
Ruinas to repaint an entrance sign, do some trail maintenance and water the
trees there. Another group of volunteers stopped by the greenhouse to water
seed beds again and then went to the Don Pepe site to repair a fence, which
protects the trees from local cattle, that was falling down and to also take
some GPS readings. A few bilingual volunteers began work on what will be a
monthly Eco-city newsletter of the ecological happenings around Bahia. The
first issue will come out in July. Currently they are gathering interview
materials and scoping out Bahia for current ecological work. The newsletter
will give much needed publicity to the hard work that is being done in the
name of the Eco-city.
¡Conciencia Verde!
Clay
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Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: June 25-29, 2007
Announcement: Our volunteer numbers are still
strong, there are currently eleven, but for many, their stay here is coming
to a close in the near future. And soon we will be understaffed, so if
you're thinking about volunteering, now's a great time to get in touch.
planetdrumecuador@yahoo.com
This week we took care of a lot of site upkeep by
installing a few more bamboo tubes at overlooked trees, did some trail
maintenance, and of course, lots of watering. The bi-lingual Argentinean
volunteers have been on the prowl for stories to put into the soon to be
released green-city newsletter, entitled Econoticias (Econews). And
we even squeezed in a field trip to the local permaculture practicing,
organic farm Rio Muchacho.
On Monday some of us visited the greenhouse, dropping
off compost, weeding, and watering. On the way home, there was a stop at the
Don Pepe and Maria Dolores revegetation sites to water the trees. Others
stayed home to take care of some house cleaning. Another group walked over
to Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas to do some watering, and clear trails
through the inner-city park. Despite having hand-rails stolen from some of
the stair cases built there, it's still a beautiful park, with over seventy
new native trees planted this past rainy season. And although a little off
the beaten path, it still makes for a good green attraction in Bahia.
Tuesday Ana, Maria and Flaca went on an Econoticias
excursion, visiting the environmental division of the local city government
to get the scoop on their latest projects. They took a trip through El
Astillero barrio to check out the recycling program there and then out to
the site of the city garbage disposal, with the temporarily paralyzed
organic separation program. The rest of the Planet Drum crew went on a
watering marathon, taking care of the El Toro, Bosque Encantado and La Cruz
sites in one day. Thanks to Ricardito to shuttling the crew around in his
truck with the enthusiasm he always has for our work.
Wednesday some of us watered Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas and the
greenhouse again. The rest continued work on Econoticias.
With watering under control, and some of the more
exposed sites receiving water twice per week, we did a bit of ecological
cultural exchange on Thursday with a Planet Drum outing to Rio Muchacho. All
eleven took a bus north of Canoa to the entrance of the Rio Muchacho
community. From there, we hiked the six or so kilometers into the organic
farm. Although only slightly north of Bahia, the climate is much wetter and
still overwhelmingly green, despite being in the dry season. It was
beautiful and lush. There was a complimentary tour of the grounds, including
their organic pigs, composting, solar seed drier, biogas collector, rotating
chicken coup, grey water filtration system, and enormous garden with an
incredible variety of tasty and nutritional fruits and vegetables. On the
way there was an enormous strangler fig tree. Many thanks are due to kind
host Nicola who showed us around and offered the invitation in the first
place. It was a wonderful day. It was great to see all the hard work they
are doing there and to spend time in a nearby but quite different ecosystem.
On Friday Ramon and a small group of his regular school
students (apart from the Bioregional Education class) who were interested in
doing some volunteer work joined us. Although perhaps motivated by getting
out of school for the day, they really helped out and it was fun getting to
explain and show some of the restoration work Planet Drum is doing. We
headed to Bosque Encantado and in one large group took care of the watering
there. The kids didn't even seem to mind the arduous hike into the site
while carrying jugs of water. They had a great time. From there they went to
the greenhouse to water and learned how we grow our trees. It was fun
spending time with some young volunteers who are interested in nature.
Life at Planet Drum keeps on rolling…
Hasta la proxima vez…
Clay
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