Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: September 3-7, 2007
On Monday we watered Maria Dolores and Don Pepe. Some
neighborhood kids came out to help us carry the water at Maria Dolores.
From there to the greenhouse where we watered and turned the compost.
In the morning on Tuesday we watered La Cruz and then
caught the bus to the greenhouse to do some general cleaning up.
Some benches were built so that there is now a
comfortable hangout next to the greenhouse.
Wednesday we worked around the house in the morning,
changing some old screens and fixing up the bathrooms. In the afternoon
Cheo helped to water Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas.
Thursday we picked up some more Pechiche seeds in
barrio Astillero on the way to Bosque Encantado, Ricardito's farm.
The site was watered and some baby Algarobos were
transplanted while there.
Then
we went to the greenhouse to plant the Algarobos into three-liter bottles.
That evening staff members from the Planet Drum base in San Francisco
arrived. They will be here in Bahia for almost a month, and we look
forward to sharing adventures with them.
Friday we started the day off by watering at El Toro,
then went to the greenhouse to put Guayacans onto bricks, do some weeding
and turn more compost. [INSERT 09-07h20.jpg]
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Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: September 10-14, 2007
The week started off with going bottle hunting in
Leonidas Plaza. Judy joined Patrick and me as we scoured the suburb of
Bahia picking up empty three-liter plasticsoda bottles. We talked to some
fishermen about the possibility of using old nets to cover young trees to
protect them from insects and animals during the dry season. As it turns
out, the fishermen spend most of their free time repairing their old nets,
so coming across someone throwing away a used net is very unlikely. From
Leonidas Plaza we caught the bus to the greenhouse to water the plants and
transplanted Caoba trees from a seedbed to three-liter bottles.
Judy jumped right into the work.
On Tuesday we watered the La Cruz site and did site
maintenance for the trees. Upkeep of the basins around the trees,
particularly uphill of the
trees
on steep slopes, is proving to be critical to their survival, even more so
than the bamboo tubes installed earlier in the dry season.
A nice 'bowl' to pour water into uphill of the trees
allows the water to slowly filter through the ground and reach the roots.
Without this depression, the water is not concentrated directly around the
tree, and often runs wastefully down the hillside. Leaves, twigs and rice
shells placed in the 'bowls' help to maintain humidity of the soil and
minimize evaporation. The positive effects of this kind of maintenance are
visible after a single week of watering.
Tuesday afternoon Patrick and I headed to the beach
in Bahia to pick up more bottles that had washed up there. In the evening
all of Bahia went to see President Correa give a speech at the
inauguration of the Bahia-San Vi
cente
bridge. Although environmental effects of this bridge are highly suspect,
Correa's speech was very interesting and illustrated his plan to unify and
develop his country, the commencement of the construction of this bridge
being one example. Economically speaking, the bridge will represent a
rebirth for this shell-shocked city.
On
Wednesday we dropped off the organic waste from the Planet Drum house at
the greenhouse, watered and then headed to Maria Dolores and Don Pepe to
water the revegetation sites. Maintenance
continues at both of those sites. The trees have since responded very well
to upkeep.
Thursday
we watered and did maintenance at the Ruinas site. In the afternoon I led
a tour of the wild park we call 'El Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas'. I
pointed out many of the hundred and twenty trees that were planted last
rainy season and checked in on other trees that Planet Drum has planted
there over the past eight years, some of which are now over ten meters
tall.
See the Algarobos that were planted along the path
in this picture.
Friday morning we watered the trees at Bosque
Encantado and paid a visit to the greenhouse to water the trees before the
weekend. In the afternoon the 'clausura'
(closure) to the summer session of the Bioregional Education class
was held at the Cerro Seco nature reserve. There was a barbeque and the
students surprised us with a collage of pictures from all the field trips
that the students had been on during the previous twelve weeks. After
eating, we had a chat with the students to get some feedback about the
class and to see how we can further develop the Planet Drum bioregional
education program. All of the students were thrilled with the class and
want to continue to learn about their bioregion. We will see what we can
do to satisfy their interest.
Pasa lo bien,
Clay
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Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: September 17-21, 2007
On Monday we got a ride into El Toro and watered the
revegetation site, then walked back out to the main road and caught the
bus to the greenhouse. At the
greenhouse the plants were watered and some weeding was done.
More Guachapeli seeds were collected from
full-sized trees nearby that are dropping seed pods.
Tuesday
we were back at the El Toro site, this time gathering discarded bricks
from the brickmakers. The bricks were taken to the greenhouse to lie under more trees
that have grown rather large. The
bricks help keep the trees' roots from growing into the ground
underneath.
Seca
trees were moved around. At the
same time as placing the trees onto the bricks, we topped the bottles the
trees were in with a fresh soil mixture.
On Wednesday the Maria Dolores and Don Pepe sites
were watered. While at Maria
Dolores, site maintanence was finished by fixing up the 'basins' around
the trees for collecting water. From
there we walked to the greenhouse and used up the rest of the soil mixed
the day before to refill Algarobo tree bottles.
Thursday
morning Peter and I gave a presentation to the Bioregionalism Education
class in the Municipality Theater on the concept of bioregionalism, with a
focus on the bioregion of Bahia de Caraquez.
At the end of the presentation, all of the students, who had recently
completed the 12 week course, were given certificates to congratulate them
for all of the work that they did.
Afterwards, the Planet Drum crew along with Cheo went
up the the La Cruz site, overlooking the city, to do some watering of the
trees.
Friday morning we stopped by the Astillero barrio to
pick up more Pechiche seeds on our way to Ricardito's farm to water the
Bosque Encantado revegetation site. At
11, visiting PD staffers and I attended a meeting in the Municipio about
the Cordillera el Balsamo group of private land owners who are working to
develop conservation, reforestation and eco-tourism in and around Bahia
and, through the National Corporation of Private Forests of Ecuador, all
of Ecuador. In the early afternoon a final visit was paid to the
greenhouse for the week to take care of watering before the weekend.
In the afternoon a meeting was held with a couple of the land
owners to discuss two new revegetation sites for the upcoming year. We met with Don Pepe and newpaper Nuevo Globo director
Eduardo Rodriguez Coll to plan sites on their lands in the Maria Dolores
watershed.
While
in the area, I gave visiting PD staffers, Peter and Judy, a tour of Cherry
Tree, a Planet Drum revegetation site from a few years ago that is a
little farther up the same watershed. We
saw trees that are two and three years old, some of which are over 10 feet
tall!
Hasta luego,
Clay
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Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: September 24-28, 2007
Summary: The last week with only a couple
volunteers; soon more will be arriving and the house will fill up again
for the first time in over two months. The routine of watering continued
and other projects are mixed in to keep things interesting. It's almost
October and the trees planted in February and March are doing very well.
There's been a less than 10% fatality rate and the majority of the trees
are showing sustained growth through the dry season.
