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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