Clay Plager-Unger

Clay Plager-Unger is the former director of Planet Drum Foundation's Eco-Ecuador project.

Portraits of Ecosystem Restoration in Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador

By Clay Plager-Unger | December 30, 2010

October-December, 2010 Pásalo bien,Clay

Thousands poured into the streets after coup attempt.

By Clay Plager-Unger | October 6, 2010

September 20-October 6, 2010 The dry season work continues. A few light drizzles have kept the trees moist enough to avoid having to water. In fact, the trees planted this past year look healthy enough so as to practically not need any manual watering at all. This is promising for the potential expansion of the revegetation project, since watering planted trees is such a time […]

Work on the new site behind the greenhouse continues.

By Clay Plager-Unger | September 20, 2010

August 25-September 20, 2010 Work on the new site behind the greenhouse continues. It is a rather large site with many trails to clear with machetes. The trails weave through existing foliage and around the contours of the land, making as much of the terrain as possible accessible for planting.  At the greenhouse, the seedbeds of Ceibo and Jaboncillo have germinated and the seedlings were […]

We may be planting upwards of three or four thousand trees this coming year.

By Clay Plager-Unger | August 24, 2010

August 5-24, 2010 We began breaking ground on the first revegetation site for the upcoming rainy season, 2011. The site is located on the hillside above the greenhouse and University Catolica. It is a large site that connects the space between a 2008 revegetation site with a site planted by Heather Crawford in 2005, which borders on a site from 2009 and 2010. Once planted, […]

2,400+ healthy trees in the greenhouse and 800 transplanted trees just outside waiting to be organized.

By Clay Plager-Unger | August 4, 2010

July 21 – August 4, 2010 While it remains somewhat humid, the dry season is noticeably creeping in. Plants and foliage are making their annual transformation from green to brown, yet the occasional precipitation helps out the trees we’ve planted. Volunteer traffic has been light, but hovers around 2-4 volunteers at a time. There’s Elodie, from France, and Arian, who is receiving University credit for […]

Fanny de Baird middle/high school seedbeds.

By Clay Plager-Unger | July 2, 2010

June 8 – July 2, 2010 Although the dry season weather has set in, there are still significant quantities of moisture floating around. It’s chilly and overcast most of the time; the sun only comes out occasionally. But despite this, it also sprinkles every once in a while. Some have described it as an invernillo, a mini-winter (rainy season). Most would say the weather has been […]

Baby Pechiche trees collected.

By Clay Plager-Unger | June 4, 2010

May 3 – June 4, 2010 Time must go by too quickly because now I’m two weeks behind schedule on my reports. A lot has happened though, so maybe that’s related. As usual, we keep trying to progress and improve with every step we take. The volunteer force has faded with the rains, both of which are sparse these days. The other night it drizzled […]

2010: Overview of Bioregional Education Program Format

By Clay Plager-Unger | May 26, 2010

Bioregional Education Program 2010 Planet Drum Foundation’s Bioregional Education Program for 2010 consists of a 12 week program for 11-13 year old local school students of the Bahía de Caráquez bioregion. Classes meet twice weekly in the afternoons and are voluntary, the students choose to participate in the program during their free time. The first day of classes this year was May 11th. On Wednesdays, […]

Planet Drum celebrates Earth Day.

By Clay Plager-Unger | April 30, 2010

April 19-30, 2010 The past two weeks have been full of rain. The kinds of rain that last all night, lightly drizzling, and occasionally coming down hard. It feels kind of like February back in the usual rainy season. We’ve been focusing our efforts on the greenhouse, but dabbling in other areas as well. Some of the seed beds have already started germinating (and random […]

Work has meant 8 -11 volunteers swinging machetes or digging seedbeds.

By Clay Plager-Unger | April 16, 2010

March 29-April 16, 2010 Volunteer help has been excellent during the past three weeks, but unfortunately it is about to drop off considerably. Right now there’s a group of five from Minnesota, Sam from the state of Washington, a couple from England, and Suzie from Australia. Recently, work has meant eight to eleven volunteers swinging machetes or digging seedbeds at the greenhouse. We have accomplished […]