Third and final plant for this rainy season

With the dry season closing in (if weather patterns are to be trusted, in June) we have planted for the final time until the steady rains begin again in October. In February we planted 610 trees with the help of the old faithful in Peribuela community plus a few German volunteers that are here on long stay volunteer placements.

At the beginning of April, we planted a further 930 trees, bringing the total for 2009 to 2572 in Peribuela, plus 100 trees on some private land, old cow pasture destined for reforesting in Pucara, Intag.

The majority of the trees planted are still Aliso Blanco (Alnus acuminata), but we have also now planted Pumamaqui (Oreopanax sp), Arrayán (Myrcianthes sp.) and Cedro (Cedrela montana), all native to the area.

On the next few weeks we shall be taking our third series of measurements to check the growth and progress of the trees planted. The first month is a critical period so we expect to have an idea of survival rates by mid May.

Last year we and some of our client base were interviewed by a free lance internet journalist, Jenny Moore, and for those interested you can read and hear her broadcast concerning reforestation initiatives and climate change at the following link;
(www.greenplanetmonitor.net)

Once we have our latest measurements, we shall be back in touch. As always, thanks to all of you who have helped and supported CanopyCo.

The first 1000 of 2009

CanopyCo are pleased to announce that we planted our first 1000 trees of 2009 in the community of Peribuela.

The community was joined by a group of Outreach volunteers (a UK based organization www.outreachinternational.co.uk), that will be joining a variety of volunteer projects during their Gap year in Ecuador. Between the 20 volunteers and 30 or so community members we made light work of planting Aliso (Alnus jorullensis), and also a few Pumamaquis (Oreopanax ecuadorensis) and Cedro Andino’s (Cedrela montana).



The Aliso’s are being planted as a pioneer specie, and we are testing the waters with Pumamaqui’s and Cedros at this early stage of forest development. The Pumamaqui’s are one of the first species to grow from scrub land close to forests (birds defecate their seeds which sprout from the shade of bushes such as Chilca), but they require shaded conditions in the first year or two of life; we have tried to imitate this process by planting in predominantly shaded areas at the base of the already present scrub.

The trees were purchased from a local Ecuadorian NGO called Fundación Brethren Y Unida (www.fbu.com.ec) and transported to the site. We lucked out with the weather and after planting, enjoyed a walk through the existing remnants of native forest we are trying to replicate, followed by a swim under a waterfall in the afternoon sun!




An important aside is that the volunteers stayed in the Peribuela Hacienda, a restored century old building that is being run by the community following the combined development achievements of CASA Interam (www.casainteram.org) and Chasqui Treks (www.intichakinan.com).
The project is now being managed by families within the community as an alternative income to their farming activities, which combined with the reforestation, is making the community an attractive off-the-beaten-track visitor site for those travelling in Ecuador.

We hope to be out there again in February with another 1000 trees, the first production to come out of the Peribuela tree nursery.

Thanks again for your continued support for the project.

CanopyCo.

The trees are growing!

Dear Sponsors

8 months on from our primary tree planning day in Peribuela in March 2008 we have returned for our second round of data collection.

On our first return in April, the area being monitored (the larger of the 3 sites we have started work on), had suffered few initial casualties, just 6 sighted deaths from the 400 trees planted (1.5%).

We then took a sample size of 46 trees to be monitored on a regular (6 monthly) basis.

The November measurements reveal the difficulties faced by saplings during the summer months, despite this summer being relatively moist in comparison with previous years.

Of the 400 planted we sighted 30 dead trees, a mortality rate now of 7.5%, which is still very good. Of our monitored trees however 28% were now dead, a higher number due to 2 reasons;

1) 4 of the 13 dead were one tree variety called Rosa, demonstrating they are not hardy enough to plant at this stage of the forest development, leaving 31 of the 40 Alisos measured alive, ie 77.5%.
2) we have concluded the trees we are measuring are in slightly more open spots (they were more eye catching during tagging), and hence also the more likely to suffer (less shade and therefore ground moisture), giving us the worst case scenario, rather than best case.



Overall we are happy with the progress, as all the survivors with one exception are looking healthy and strong (the exception is #36 on the graph, the negative growth tree as it died back and re-sprouted). During 6 more months of winter rains it is expected they will all be on the 1metre mark, and begin to poke their heads above the scrub and starting to change the landscape.

The next steps

We are continuing to support the Peribuela tree nursery and it is hoped it will grow steadily into 2009. We have our next big reforestation day in January when we expect to plant another 1000 trees. In March another 1000 trees are planned.

We are also planning to plant trees on some unused private land that may later develop into small ecotourism projects with the collaboration of the owners.

And talks are in progress to plant some Alisos for agro forestry purposes in a new community local to our home.

So, 2009 promises to keep us nice and busy.

Thanks again for your support, past present and future, and don’t forget to clean up your carbon!

CanopyCo first anniversary

1 Year Anniversary

CanopyCo was formed on the 12th November 2007, so it seems only right to have our first retrospective, be it short.

During the first year we have found 8 excellent, and hopefully permanent sponsors who in their own ways help us get more trees in the ground, as well as many individuals who have helped us with the hard earned cash.

We have several reforestation sites available for us to work on as and when the time is right, and our primary focus remains the Peribuela native forest and tree nursery development project we have under way.

The Peribuela tree nursery is taken shape, though slower than we had hoped. We have several species planted, including Alisos, Pumamaqui, Palo Blanco, Facuna, Laga and Arrayan and we are trying our luck with the Huatze tree also (as yet not known to have been re-produced in a tree nursery). We are aiming for 3000 trees to be planted in the Peribuela scrub before end March, hopefully all from the tree nursery.



We have made a few site visits over the 7 months since we planted our first trees and all looks good – in the main part the trees are healthy and growing, what more could we ask for? This next week we will be taking some data from the monitored trees that we have tagged to get a feel for the progress being made. Watch this space for details.

So, again we extend our heartfelt thanks to all those that are contributing to our work.

The team at CanopyCo

CanopyCo plants first trees

On March 15th 2008 CanopyCo planted its first 500 trees with the help of a US Global Works Volunteer Group and the local community in Peribuela in Northern Ecuador.
We were a 30 strong group and spent the morning planting Aliso and Rosa trees in the community chaparal (a kind of scrub area). The trees were funded by the carbon offsets of tourist flights to Ecuador.

The area was chosen as it can serve no agricultural purpose due to its semi rocky and semi degraded terrain. The land is communal and as the trees and forest grows we hope to help increase the watertable and thus water catchment for the community lower down the valley.


The Aliso's and Rosa trees are part of a long term plan to reproduce the native forest ecosystem present slighty higher up the valley, with the objective to reforest with at least a dozen different native tree species during the project.

We expect this development to help increase the diversity of flora and fauna previously present in the area.