Reports from Planet Drum Staff
Eco-Ecuador Project 2009
Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
May 27-June 12, 2009
Note: Click on photos for larger picture
Time has been divided between watering revegetation
sites and tree production in the greenhouse.
The seeds beds continued to pump out Jaboncillo, Seca, Guachepeli
and Ceibo saplings.
It is an endless cycle of bottle collecting, soil
mixing and transplanting. Lots
of times we dug up trees from the seedbeds, which would turn the soil,
subsequently new seeds would begin to germinate, requiring further
transplanting. As a result,
the greenhouse has been filling up rapidly with ten by ten squares of
three-liter bottles in sets of one hundred like the aerial view of blocks
in a city. A block of Seca trees recover from the transplanting process
next to a block of Jaboncillo, across the street is a square of Pechiche.
Block after block after block.
Out in the field, each site that has been planted
this year, ten in total, requires watering so that the young trees don’t
die before getting the chance to develop a root system in the soil.
A source for water, a particularly precious resource in this
region, has been acquired within walking distance for all but one of the
sites.
The following sites
were watered during the past two weeks: La Universidad Catolica, Jorge
Lomas, Ruperti, all three in el Astillero and Beletine. Watering requires
filling up gallon jugs at the water source and carrying them first to the
site, then up the hill to the trees.
Each tree receives between 1/3 and 1/2 a gallon depending on how
many trees there are, the availability of water and the amount of help we
have on that particular day.
At the time of watering we always make sure that
there is a nice bowl shape around each tree so that water can percolate
into the soil directly surrounding the tree, instead of gushing down the
hillside. Also important is
to place leaves (mulch) in these depressions in order to cover the moist
soil to curb evaporation, encourage insect activity in the soil and
provide additional nutrients.
Pásalo bien,
Clay
Maggie watering at the University Catolica site. |
Guilhem watering.
|
Tanguy spreads a layer of mulch on top of a seed bed of
Guachepeli. |
Rosie cuts up 3-liter bottles in preparation for transplanting. |
Yuki, Guilhem, and Tanguy fill up gallon jugs for watering
trees at one of the Astillero revegetation sites. |
Guilhem and Yuki clear weeds. |
El Jefe (The boss,
i.e.Clay). |
Rosie and
Maggie awaiting a day of watering. |
Delivering
water to the remote site of Beletine. |
Tanguy. |
Planet Drum
takes public transportation. |
Yuki tackles
a pile of bottles. |
Guilhem
watering in the vivero. |
Tanguy pulls
weeds from the Ceibo seedbed. |
Paola and
Sofia remove the shell from Jaboncillo seeds for storage. |
Yuki. |
Rosie and
Sofia after a morning of watering in el Astillero
. |
|
Pásalo bien,
Clay
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