Reports from Planet Drum Staff
Eco-Ecuador Project 2009

Index to 2009 Reports, Set 9 (July 2-30,2009)

Field Report #10

Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
July 2-30, 2009

Note: Click on photos for larger picture   

This time of the year, the dry season, requires maintenance for the revegetation sites that were planted this past rainy season as well as producing new trees in the greenhouse for next year’s sites.

We’ve been watering sites on a regular basis. Recently I met with our friend Chino and he now helps out with two places that don’t have water access nearby, El Toro and Beletine. He has a very nice truck and two 1,200 liter tanks for tranporting water. The typical routine is to fill up one of the tanks, drive into the site, unload the empty tank and transfer the water out of the truck into it. That way Chino can drive around for the morning taking care of other business, while we carry all of that water in jugs uphill to the trees.

Among the many benefits of this routine is that we end up watering each tree with between one and two gallons, which is three to six times as much water as usual. The trees are responding very well.

Watered sites include: La Universidad Catolica, Bosque Encantado, Beletine, El Toro, All three sites in El Astillero, Ruperti, San Roque, and Jorge Lomas.

There has been a lot of progress in the greenhouse. Currently four new seed beds are planted with Guasmo and Algarrobo seeds. Guasmo seeds are spiky and black. Each shell contains about a dozen small seeds inside. The seeds germinate quickly and only need to be broken out of the shell. Algarrobo seeds on the other hand come in long pods, like string beans. The pulp of the pods is rich in carbohydrates and they are often used as animal feed. If they are ground up, the animals also receive protein from the seeds. The seeds inside are tough and have a thick casing. In order to speed germination, the pods are broken up and the seeds are soaked for two to three days before being sown.

As trees germinate and grow to a few inches in height, we transfer them out of the beds into three-liter bottles. Bottles were collected, cut, and rinsed. Soil was mixed (1/3 humus, 1/3 compost, 1/3 river sand).

We transplanted Jaboncillo, Ceibo, Guachepeli, Pechiche, and Coca saplings.

The greenhouse started to overflow so we cleared a space nearby to store trees.

The final bit of business at the greenhouse was to rearrange the trees a bit. Many have grown to the point that their roots are beginning to poke out of the drainage holes in the bottle of the three-liter bottles. This will complicate matters in the future because the roots grow into the ground below and then when it is time to transplant them into the field, their roots are very large and easily damaged during transport. In previous years we attempted to mitigate this problem by stacking the trees on top of a layer of bricks, but many still managed to drop roots between the cracks in the bricks, creating an even more delicate situation.

This year I purchased strips of plastic to place under the trees to attempt to discourage the roots from growing out of the bottles. Volunteers helped transfer them onto the plastic. I am hopeful that the new arrangement will make things easier for moving the trees out of the greenhouse.

In the past month we also took a field trip with all the volunteers to the permaculture farm, Rio Muchacho, and began construction of a tent platform during two visits to the Planet Drum Bioregional Sustainability land, described in a separate report.

            Pásalo bien,

            Clay

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Bioregional Sustainability Institute(BSI) Progress Report

Clay Plager-Unger
Field Projects Manager
Planet Drum Foundation
July 2 & July 29, 2009

Note: Click on photos for larger picture

In one long epic day we drove in to the Planet Drum land with a load of Bamboo (Caña) to begin the first structure for the Bioregional Sustainability Institute: a tent platform. This was the first trip with a motorized vehicle. Chino (the one and only, the incredible) drove his full-sized diesel truck. Along the way we cleared eroding dirt off of the road’s harrowing decent into the watershed, which shares the Planet Drum land and part of the cattle rancher’s land that we have to travel through, and drains into the Pacific Ocean five miles to the west. There were two to three problem spots where the side-cut road that was carved into the steep dirt slope needed the most shoveling work in order to be passable.

Fortunately there were enough of us to rotate shifts in order to keep the pick axe and shovels in motion nearly the entire time.

We arrived at the border of the land with the load of cargo mid-morning, already sweaty and dirty. Because of the terrain, we can’t actually drive onto the land yet. A five meter deep and twelve meter wide seasonal river drainage prevents complete access. And until a bridge is constructed we will have to settle with arriving on the far side of this barrier and then walking in.

After deciding on the location for the platform based on convenience, aesthetic appeal and most importantly open space with minimal undergrowth to clear, a small group of volunteers began to clear the area. The bamboo was unloaded and we started cutting it into pieces.

We decided on a 4 X 2.5 meter platform, raised off of the ground approximately one half meter. Bamboo is an excellent building material because its strength to weight ratio and because, if cleverly assembled, requires a minimal usage of nails. So far we’ve avoided the use of nails entirely. Perhaps later they will be necessary?

Because of the time it took to simply get the truck to the land, only a small portion of the construction of the tent platform was completed on the first visit. The area was cleared, a few of the holes were dug, and some of the bamboo supports were cut and put temporarily into place. Regardless, the fact that we made it into the land on that bad road with the supplies was momentous in my opinion.

Several weeks later we returned to continue working on the tent platform. It felt good to arrive at the site fresh with energy. Because some of the work had been started already, we jumped right in.

The first goal was to get another horizontal support in the ground. The ground here is extremely hard and we needed three more holes dug. Three more bamboo supports were cut along with the cross beam. The supports that were started last time needed to be leveled and squared a bit, and then we filled in the holes around the bamboo, locking the supports in place.

With the remaining bamboo tubes we cut cross sections, which will serve as struts for the floor. Caña picada as it’s called is bamboo split lengthwise and flatted out, like the flattened bark of a tree. This will be placed across the struts and serve as the floor.

Before we had to leave, all three of the supports were set in the ground and packed in with dirt to hold them in place. The struts were cut to length, but we ran out of time to properly attach them to the base supports. That and flooring will have to wait for next time…

Pásalo bien,

Clay

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