Reports from Planet Drum Staff
Eco-Ecuador Project 2010

Index to 2010 Reports, Set 1 (January 2010)

Field Report #1

Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Dec. 30, 2009-Jan.15, 2010

Note: Click on photos for larger picture  

We’ve been getting holes, trails and sites ready in preparation for the oncoming rainy season, which officially began over the weekend of January 9-10th. As mentioned in the previous report, three revegetation sites had been completed and a fourth is about two-thirds ready for planting. 1,000 holes have been dug at the sites thus far and are ready for immediate planting.

The big news this year is that there is a new Field Foreman, a long time Planet Drum local friend, famous for his enthusiasm for seed collecting and knowledge of local tree species, Orlando. He will be accompanying the crew in the field on a daily basis and after a short training period will be leading the field crew on days when I have duties that require my presence in Bahia for the morning.

Once the rains began (which coincided perfectly for planting according to the moon phases) we shifted gears entirely to tree planting. This past week everyday has been dedicated to tree planting at the sites that are ready.

Trees were planted at the William site, in Jorge Lomas, and the Universidad Catolica site. I am very happy about the size of the trees grown in the greenhouse for transplanting into the field. If they are too small, they tend to take too long to set roots, and if they are too big they won’t transplant well at all. The ideal size appears to be around 50 cm (1 ½ feet). The vast majority of the trees this year fit the bill.

The trick about getting trees to be the proper size is to germinate the seeds at the right time, depending on how quickly each species grows. Some trees need almost a full twelve months in the greenhouse, others only three to four.

The sites we’ve planted already look fantastic, with hundreds of healthy trees dotting the landscape.

Rain water has a magical quality on plants, the effect of which is heightened by nine months of no rain. Everything is budding and bursting with a brilliant bright green. The trees at the greenhouse are exploding, begging to be transplanted as soon as possible.

Another activity that we have been doing lately, which always puts a smile on Orlando’s face, is seed collecting. The rains have been knocking down all kinds of seeds from different trees species, prime for collecting and saving for the Planet Drum greenhouse. So in our spare moments during the day, we’ve been building up the seed reserve for next year’s batch of trees.

The large task facing us now will be to continue to make new sites to create homes for the remaining 1,500 or so trees left in the greenhouse. Fortunately the volunteer schedule is looking good for February and beyond, with lots of motivated individuals due for arrival.

Pásalo bien,

Clay

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Field Report #2

Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
Jan.16-29, 2010

Note: Click on photos for larger picture 

Although not in full swing yet, the rainy season is here and it’s been drizzling frequently and raining on occasion, enough for the trees (and weeds) to burst with growth. Also, there have been some new additions to the volunteer work force and we’ve got quite a team now.

There’s Jake and Ashley from Michigan, who’ve been with us for over a month already. New arrivals include Daniel from Switzerland, Rebecca from Sweden, and Felicia from Holland.

We are continuing to plant trees like crazy and have even expanded one site with more trails and holes. One complicating factor with planting trees in land that is being recovered from agriculture use is that the lack of a proper forest canopy gives an advantage to weeds that can transform sunlight into growth far faster than the trees we plant. We need to mark each tree we plant with a painted stick in order to be able to find it just one or two weeks later.

Some sticks have already been prepared and placed at two of the sites, but there weren’t enough for all the trees and there are still more sites left to plant. Additional sticks for marking the trees have been acquired. This work has become somewhat urgent since we risk losing track entirely of trees that aren’t marked after only a couple weeks.

This year we started out using the branches of Neem trees (a non-native) as the markers, but we ran out of branches that are the adequate size to harvest. So we’ve decided to use pieces of Bamboo. Bamboo is often used in construction and can be recycled after its first use for stakes to make the trees. Where else to find stashes of Bamboo pieces suitable for stakes but at the city dump? We spent a morning gathering bamboo and other wood scraps to salvage as markers for the trees we plant.

The greenhouse has also needed some attention. The weeds have been kept back and the trees well organized. As each site is planted, we move out the largest trees of each species first. Since it will take up to a couple months to plant all the trees, the smaller ones will have a chance to grow some more before they are transplanted to the field. The black plastic under the trees has worked great for preventing tree roots from growing through the holes in the bottom of their three-liter plastic bottles and into the floor of the greenhouse.

On a bit of a side note, volunteer Daniel has invented a way to interconnect pieces of the three-liter plastic bottles (after the tree has been transplanted) to create a roof that can be used for rainwater collection. He is in the process of gathering correct sized pieces to make a trial roof that we will build at the greenhouse. Since he came up with this idea, all the trees we plant are being cut from their bottles along the proper lines in the plastic so that each bottle produces two pieces of roofing (if cut correctly). If this works, we will be re-reusing the three-liter bottle for one more purpose.

In theory, the life of a three-liter plastic bottle that comes into the hands of a Planet Drummer really only starts after being emptied of its original liquid contents. First, the bottle is used as storage container for a native tree sapling in the greenhouse for approximately one year. The wrapper from the bottle can be turned into a durable recycled plastic bag with recycled bicycle tire handles (thanks to previous Bioregional Educator Paola Devito for this idea). After the tree is transplanted, the majority of the plastic from the bottle can then be turned into tile-like pieces which will form a roof capable of capturing rain water.

        Pásalo bien,

              Clay

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