Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: October 22 – October 26, 2007
On Monday the Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas site was
watered. The plants and seedbeds at the greenhouse were watered as well
and the house compost was dumped off. I stayed home in the office,
finishing up the translation of the Bioregionalism Education booklet.
Tuesday the La Cruz and Bosque Encantado sites were
watered. While at Ricardito's farm we cut Moyuyo stakes and collected
Samango seeds.
Wednesday morning we scoured the streets of Bahia and
Leonidas Plaza, collecting discarded plastic 3-liter soda bottles. The
bottles were taken to the greenhouse where they were cut and washed. The
plants were watered and new soil for transplanting was prepared.
On Thursday morning we held an open house at the
greenhouse from 9-noon in conjunction with the Universidad Catolica's open
house. We had arranged several classes of school children to visit from
the Eloy Alfaro School. In addition, several groups of visitors came to
see the setup at the greenhouse. 
While waiting for things to begin we moved some of
the trees around to make room for planting more seedbeds. Once visitors
started coming by, we began showing off our collection of a couple
thousand trees and over ten different kinds of native species. 
With
the groups of students I talked about how compost is created, and the
importance of planting trees. They got to see seedlings popping up in
seedbeds and how trees grow from saplings into trees that are over a year
old and very ready to be planted on hillsides. They were all well behaved
and engaged in the demonstrations.
After things wrapped up at the open house we headed
out to the El Toro site with Ricardito and took take care of watering
there.
On Friday I took a vacation day and got out of Bahia
for a long weekend. The rest of the crew took care of watering the Maria
Dolores and Don Pepe revegetation sites and watering at the greenhouse
before the weekend.
Hasta luego,
Clay
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Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: October 29 – November 2, 2007
On Monday morning the Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas
and La Cruz revegetation sites were watered. In the afternoon we got an
invitation to help repaint some Eco-city murals that were in danger of
being painted over because they were starting to fade. While some of the
volunteers went to help Marcelo Luque with the murals, I went to the
greenhouse with Jaime to water and check in on the plants.
Tuesday we went to Ricardito's farm to water Bosque
Encantado. After watering some volunteers went to the greenhouse to turn
compost, weed, and water. Others stayed at the farm and began work on a
new revegetation site for next year. Trails were cleared in a new area
where trees will be planted. Site design is critical since the new sites
will be several times larger than the current sites, about 300 trees per
site instead of about 60-70.
The hardest part of the revegetation process is
maintenance of the plants, i.e. watering for the first dry season to help
the trees take root and increase survival rates. Sites are being designed
with this in mind to minimize the time and effort it requires to water
each site.
Sites will have natural divisions, allowing
individuals to be responsible for watering a specific area and reduce
repeated visits to trees to check if they got water. In some areas winding
trails will lead to the trees, in others rows of trees will be planted,
depending on the terrain. With such large sites efficiency will be
crucial. Also, weekly watering of sites by a group of people can have a
large impact on trails over the dry season and can create erosion. For
this reason I am avoiding trails that go straight up steep hillsides and
instead using zigzags where possible.
On Wednesday everyone went to Fanca to fill water
jugs at Jaime's house. While there they did some bottle hunting around the
neighborhood. We then split into groups; some people went to the
greenhouse with the bottles and prepped them for transplanting. They also
made some more soil for planting.
The other group took a truck ride into the El Toro
watershed to water trees. While watering I met with one of the land owners
who has a cistern nearby the revegetation site. I made an agreement to buy
water for November and December. With water on location we won't have more
problems with bringing water into the area, which is quite a hassle.
Relations with the landowners at this site have improved slightly.
In the afternoon we met up with some of the
after-school students from Planet Drum’s Bioregionalismo class and
headed over to the murals to finish painting, just in time for the city's
celebrations beginning on Friday! 
Thursday we started off at the greenhouse, collecting
more Guachapeli seeds and doing more soil prep and filling bottles with it
for transplanting. From there we walked to the Maria Dolores and Don Pepe
sites to water. On the way more Guachapeli seeds were collected, this time
from a Guachapeli Negro tree.
On Friday the entire Planet Drum family took a field
trip to visit our friend Orlando's farm near San Isidro. After arriving,
we took a walk up into the hills along a stream bed.
There were young Balsamo trees, a tree in danger of being extinct. While
there Amarillo and Guasmo seeds were collected.
We
ate Guanabana, Maracuya, fresh Cacao and Grapefruit collected from plants
on his farm. A delicious lunch was prepared with his family. Despite being
a short trip because we had to catch a bus home early in the afternoon,
all had a fantastic time and a lot of seeds were collected.
Another action packed week here on the coast of
Ecuador!
Hasta luego,
Clay
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Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Report: November 5 – November 9, 2007
On Monday morning, bottles were collected around town
and the Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas and La Cruz sites were watered.
At the greenhouse bottles were prepared and compost was dumped off
and turned. Trees were moved
about to create more room for seed beds and the plants were watered.
Lilian and Michelle, two new volunteers arrived.
On Tuesday half the volunteers watered Bosque
Encantado and more trails were opened at the new site there.
The other half went to water El Toro and plants at the greenhouse.
I accompanied Jaeson, from San Francisco, to the Planet Drum land
in Pajonal, where he camped out for a few days in order to take GPS
coordinates and investigate possibilities for an access road location. 
[Jaeson
is on lower right of picture]
Wednesday morning it drizzled and a couple of
volunteers went to the greenhouse to fill up watering jugs and prepare
3-liter bottles for transplanting. Back
at the house we did a cleanup and then hired a truck to take Moyuyo stakes
for fencing to the new Don Pepe revegetation site.
On
the way we swung by the greenhouse and picked up already full watering
jugs to drive them into the Don Pepe and Maria Dolores sites.
We unloaded watering jugs and the Moyuyo stakes inside the Maria
Dolores watershed. The old revegetation sites were watered and the stakes were
carried into the new site.
Thursday
morning it drizzled again and we carried stakes and designed the outline
of the new site on Don Pepe's land. Some
macheteing was done to clear lines for barbwire and posts were placed at
intervals. We began digging
holes for the posts.
Others
worked at the greenhouse, transplanting a seedbed of nearly two hundred
baby Ceibos to 3-liter bottles.
On Friday there was a light rain in the early
morning. More work was done
on the fence at Don Pepe's. Fence
posts were placed around the perimeter and the rest of the holes were dug. 
Another group at the greenhouse finished
transplanting the Ceibos and also worked on fixing up the greenhouse
extension and moving trees over there. Once some trees were moved, space was freed up for more seed
beds. Soil was mixed and the
beds were prepared.
Hasta luego,
Clay
Note
from November 23, 2007. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
We had a veritable
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