It’s been nearly three months since a 7.8 earthquake rocked the coast of Ecuador. In less than one minute (approximately 50 seconds), Bahía de Caráquez, and many other coastal cities (Pedernales, Manta, Portoviejo) and towns (Jama, Canoa, Mompiche) were hit with a wave of destruction that continues to reverberate to the present in the form of aftershocks, demolition, and rattled nerves. As of last night […]
Rachel, a Planet Drum intern from 2012-13, happened to be visiting Ecuador when the earthquake hit. Heroically, she made the difficult decision to return to the area and assist in the recovery efforts. She has been working with the people in Canoa to rebuild ecologically, and of course, she has been promoting Planet Drum’s revegetation work. Canoa was one of the places that was hit […]
One of the benefits of the new Planet Drum house, aside from having a roof over our heads – which is real luxury considering the number of buildings that have been destroyed in and around Bahía as a result of the earthquake – is that there is a yard, and we have space for things like seedbeds and plants. As soon as Nicolas finished building […]
Planet Drum’s first intern at the new house is Nicolas from France. Nicolas arrvied in May and will spend 4 months assisting with the Dry Tropical Forest Revegetation and Bioregional Education Project. He has a special interest in studying Planet Drum’s revegetation sites, especially in regard to soil erosion prevention. One of his first tasks will be to build a new organic waste composter at […]
As the dry season sets in and precipitate becomes increasing sparse, students from the Catholic University on their own initiative, cleared around trees they had planted with Planet Drum in years past. They dug holes around the trees for water, and have been watering them regularly so that they continue to thrive. In the aftermath of the earthquake, any kind of new growth and regeneration […]
After the collapse of the greenhouse, and having every single tree fall over from the earthquake, the situation has been somewhat stabilized. The collapsed greenhouse material was removed and burned. Trees were righted. And we already have visitors coming looking for trees. There are several thousand trees that are ready to be delivered, although obviously interest in receiving trees is notably lower due much more […]
Electrical engineer Harold Rivandiniera from the National Electric Company (CNEL), organized a native fruit tree donation event at the Planet Drum greenhouse with CNEL contractors from around the Manabí province to receive trees for their ongoing Árbol Eléctrico (Electric Tree) campaign. Planet Drum has been providing CNEL with the trees for their community based tree planting campaign and since 2013 thousands of trees have been […]
Planet Drum friend and volunteer extraordinaire Bruce (USA), showed up on his motorcycle with two dozen Sawyer gravity-powered water filters to distribute to Earthquake refugees in the Bahía area. The filters can be installed on any water receptacle and via gravity filter the water into another container. They are perfect for turning truck (or city) water into potable drinking water and can save people money […]
A large group of GSE volunteers from northern California and a handful of students from local eco-clubs visited the Planet Drum greenhouse to participate in a tree transplanting workshop. The visitors learned about Planet Drum’s revegetation project and assisted in transplanting approximately 250 seedlings from seedbeds to bottles. Work included mixing soil, cutting and filling bottles, and transplanting trees. The group was very motivated and […]
Students from the Catholic University, where the Planet Drum greenhouse is located, joined in revegetation efforts for a morning. Trees from the greenhouse were taken to the hillside behind the University and planted under the supervision of field foreman Orlando Arias. This year the University has a new director, who has expressed interest in increasing collaboration with its students and Planet Drum’s revegetation project. So […]