Eco-Ecuador Dry Tropical Forest Revegetation Project
The Dry Tropical Vegetation of Bahia De Caraquez coastal bioregion is both specific and barely extant. The Project began as an effort to stabilize hillsides (which had recently become mudslides) by replanting a combination of indigenous trees, shrubs and grasses. Working with local people as well as international volunteers, the various project managers have each left their mark on the Eco-Ecuador Project. This page is a compilation of who they are and were and a links to their Reports.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Feb. 23-Mar. 25, 2010 The big news of the month is that Planet Drum has changed houses, so the office and living space for the volunteers is now in a new location (304 Calle Riofrío). Since it’s only a block and a half away from our former apartment, it’s not that different, but it feels like a large change, and has been a significant amount […]
Feb.1-23, 2010 Welcome to the heart of the rainy season. There’s been precipitation during multiple nights of the week for the past month. Sometimes it comes down quite hard (nothing extreme yet, fortunately) and other times it lightly sprinkles throughout the course of the night. A light rain that lasts for a long time is considered the best. If it rains too fast, the soil […]
Jan.16-29, 2010 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 […]
Dec. 30, 2009-Jan.15, 2010 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. […]
Dec.12-29, 2009 Rains! Well, just about. It’s been drizzling and lightly raining on a somewhat consistent basis, mostly at the night, during the past couple weeks. Although it hasn’t rained enough to make the office/apartment roof leak (which doesn’t take all that much), there’s been enough to cause plants in the greenhouse to begin budding and show signs of new leafs and growth. Very soon […]
Sept. 23-Oct.6, 2009 Work on the first new revegetation site (for 2010) has commenced. With machetes we clear trails to be able to navigate the site and holes are dug for planting the trees once the rains begin (late December or early January?). This site is actually a piece of land that is owned by William Zambrano, a neighbor of the Planet Drum apartment/office in […]