New Lease on Life? Possibility Is There
Episcopal News Service. May 26, 1977 [77195]
New York, N.Y. -- A call for help from the Episcopal Bishop of Guatemala and a chance call to an Akron, Ohio parish turned up a man whose rich fount of knowledge of tropical life and rubber production may give a new lease on life to L.I.F.E. – the Lake Izabel Farming and Educational Project.
The 16-year-old self-help project had suffered a severe turnabout last year when budgrafting processes for the vital rubber plantation failed for the second year in a row. Seeking help, the Rt. Rev. Anselmo Carral wrote to the Rev. David Birney, a member of the National and World Mission staff of the Episcopal Church Center, about locating an expert who could advise on the problem.
Not knowing any rubber experts himself, Fr. Birney made a logical guess. "I figured the place to look was Akron, the rubber producing center, and I just picked a rector out of the Church Annual to see if I could get any leads. "
Contact with the Rev. George Ross of St. Paul's Church proved the answer. Fr. Ross had a member of his parish who had been in the technical end of the rubber business for 37 years. Moreover, he was available and, last winter, Paul D. Wagner packed his bags and took off for Guatemala.
L.I.F.E.. is situated on the lake shore adjacent to the village of Mariscos and 29 miles from the Caribbean Sea. For much of its existence, it enjoyed a rainfall of over one hundred inches a year, a bit over that needed for successful rubber tree cultivation. In the last few years, however, this has fallen off drastically, and this -- it appeared to Wagner -- was the major cause of the bud failure.
Trees in the area appeared healthy, but the records showed that the climate had undergone a very serious change. Fifty percent of their budgrafts weren't taking. The trees had simply gone dormant in the dry weather, Wagner said in a recent talk here when he dropped by the Church Center to deliver his final report on the L.I.F.E. project.
Wagner was able to show the farmers how to keep the grafts sanitary to avoid fungus and suggested some techniques that may improve chances of success, but not much can be done about the weather.
"Of course, every day I was there it rained, and it was the kind of rain that rubber needs, slow and steady, but the area is not really ideal for rubber production, " the retired B. F. Goodrich troubleshooter said.
In his final report, Wagner points out that no rainfall records exist before 1963 and suggests that the previous heavy rain may be part of a rain/drought cycle. In his comments in New York, he did say that Latin American rubber is currently commanding a very strong price, but urged that the L.I.F.E. project consider getting into more food crops that would be better suited to the long-range weather conditions and the meager soil.
His 18-page report, which is now under study by Church Center and diocesan staff, also makes a strong plea for educational and medicinal help for the project and offers high praise for the priest, the Rev. Sylvestre Romero, who runs it against heavy odds.
Paul Wagner is now back in Akron and back to work on his briefly interrupted retirement project of work around his house and back to tending the more than 200 strains of orchids that he has been cultivating since 1958.