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Reports from Planet Drum Staff
Eco-Ecuador Project 2009

Index to 2009 Reports, Set 2 (Feb. 1-Mar. 9,2009)

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Field Report #3

Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
February 1-March 9, 2009

Note: Click on photos for larger picture   

Summary: So much to cover, and it all happened in one month!?  10th anniversary of the Eco-city. Tree planting. Myriads of volunteers. Rains. Ridiculously fast growing weeds. Land visits and field trips.

I’m going to stick to the field work, since Peter has covered a lot of the Bahia happenings in his Dispatches. I will also rely on photos to show more of what has been going on instead of text.

Thanks to the help of the numerous volunteers who came to help this month we were able to accomplish a ton of work. Close to a thousand trees were planted. El Toro, one of the most arduous sites, was planted with nearly 300 trees halfway up an incredibly steep slope. A brand new site, our largest ever with over 400 trees was started from scratch. Trails were cleared, holes dug, and trees planted.

Hundreds upon hundreds of stakes for identification were cut and painted. And as each day passed the weeds increasingly encroach upon the trees. Two weeks after a site was planted, the trails had disappeared and the trees were lost in a tangle of weeds and creeping ground vines.

The greenhouse was neglected for awhile and nearly overrun with weeds until we unleashed a team of volunteers to clear them out.

We are approaching the end of the planting season and soon will be transitioning to other work, such as greenhouse upkeep and seed planting and site maintenance (weed clearing). Our machetes are sharpened and we are ready.


Marketa takes a rest upon a pile of stakes that will be painted yellow for identifying trees at the revegetation sites.
Volunteers spend a rainy morning in the house cleaning and breaking Dormilon and Guarango seeds out of their seed pods.

Walking home after a misty morning of clearing weeds at the Rattys site.
Gilbert, Marketa, Ramon and Erin carry trees up a hillside in the El Toro watershed for planting.

Fanny plants a Guachepeli tree at the El Toro site.
Ryan planting trees.

Erin, Arsalan, and Sabina planting trees.
An enormous, several hundred year old Ceibo tree dominates the entrance to the Planet Drum Bioregional Sustainability Institute land.

Planet Drum founder and director Peter Berg explores the terrain on the Institute land.
Alex hacks trails at the Ruperti revegetation site near Kilometro 8.

Eric ponders his next machete swing.
Marketa digging holes.

Aaron, Eric, Ryan, and Erin unload a truckload of trees at the Ruperti site.
Nicole, Sabina, Fanny, Aaron, Alex, Paola, Eric, Ramon, Birgitta, Marketa, and Jaime carry equipment from the revegetation site to the greenhouse.

Sabina, Eric, Paola, Nicole, and Fanny peel the skins off of Pechiche fruits so that the seeds can be dried.
Birgitta, Paola, Fanny, and Eric clear weeds from seed beds at the greenhouse.

            Pásalo bien,

            Clay

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