Projects
September 1 – December 5, 2014 Field Report In September, with the help of volunteers Joe and Grace, an extension to the greenhouse was constructed in order to have more space for storing supplies and for working. The ramada used for storage was tripled in size. There is now much more space for storing plastic bottles and a new area for working in the shade. […]
July 30 – August 29, 2014 Field Report In August, Planet Drum hosted several educational workshops at the greenhouse with students from the Fanny de Baird School in Bahia and the Padre Jorge Paladines High School in San Vicente. The visiting students were given a brief lecture on the main features of the dry forest bioregion and a tour of the greenhouse. Afterwards, they participated […]
June 11 – July 29, 2014 Field Report The past seven weeks have been dedicated to hosting revegetation workshops with local school students at the greenhouse. The Fanny de Baird school has 16 groups of students (averaging 40 students in each group) who are in the proper age range for participating with Planet Drum. So far students from the 8th and 9th grades (ten groups) […]
When I started working as the Community Engagement Intern at Planet Drum (PD), I was excited to join the team and help out in any way that I could. The first weeks as a Drummer involved working at some of the restoration sites that Planet Drum has been caring for during the past few years, including Bellavista, La Universidad Católica, and Bosque en Medio de […]
April 21 – June 10, 2014 Field Report The Revegetation Project is moving in exciting new directions and expanding its scope. The goal for 2014 is now to produce 15,000 trees in the greenhouse. 13,000 of them will be distributed to locals and 2,000 trees will be planted and maintained directly by Planet Drum. Revegetation workshops held at the greenhouse are an important way to […]
March 11 – April 18, 2014 Field Report The very sparse rainy season persists. And now that it is late April, it is likely that it is wrapping up. The weather has been cooling off slightly, especially in the evenings, which is considered a sign that the dry season is approaching. Rumors of a possible El Niño developing later in the year are spreading through […]
February 6 – March 10 2014 Field Report The rainy season has been on the very light side this year. In fact, it’s hardly been raining at all. Larger plants and trees from previous years that already have big roots are doing well and can take advantage of every little drizzle and downpour. Smaller, more recently transplanted trees are struggling to take root with the […]
November 5, 2013 – February 5, 2014 Field Report We ended 2013 with visits to the greenhouse from several more groups of students from the Sathya Sai and Montufar schools. The children thoroughly enjoyed the visits. Some of the younger groups of kids were actually the most knowledgeable during the lecture portion of the workshop and enthusiastic doing the hands-on work. With help from the […]
August 20, 2013 – November 5, 2013 Field Report In late August, a GPS site map of the revegetation sites from 2005-2013 was completed with the initiative taken by field research intern Joffrey Iboud. After several months of plotting GPS coordinates at all of the sites, the data was entered into a computer with maps that were acquired from the city government. The result is […]
I arrived at Planet Drum’s Ecuador office in early June, enthusiastic about beginning my Community Engagement Internship. I wasn’t sure what to expect about the work I’d be doing or about everyday life in Bahia, but at the end of August with toned muscles and a new bioregional perspective, I was leaving a place that had begun to feel like home. As a graduate student […]