While nations of the world struggle to agree on a plan for reducing greenhouse gases, the Chacón family in the valley of Rio Savegre looked to science to develop a solution for sustaining the local environment while continuing to make a good living.

The story of the Chacóns and their land is told in the latest issue of Radiations, the official publication of Sigma Pi Sigma, the national physics honor society. The article is written by Dwight E. Neuenschwander, a physics professor at Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma, with environmental biologist Leo Finkenbinder, a Southern Nazarene University professor of biology.

Until 1983, Efrain Chacón and his family owned a successful dairy farm. It was that year when the Chacóns grappled with the difficult choice of expanding their business or preserving the ecologically valuable land around them.

Chacón and his son made a choice that they believed would benefit their grandchildren: they stopped cutting their trees, they sold their cattle and they converted their dairy farm into a fruit orchard. At the same time, they opened the eyes of the 10,000 people who now visit their valley every year.

In business since 1948, the Chacóns were accustomed to using science and technology to improve their farming. They increased their herd of Holstein cows through artificial insemination of sperm imported from the Netherlands. They learned about rainbow trout and constructed a small hatchery for them. Eager to make fresh apples available in their home country, they discovered an Israel-based apple tree perfect for growing on their farm.

But in 1982, a visit from biologist Finkenbinder and his students changed the course of their farm forever. They came to Rio Savegre regularly to study the diversity of life in the forest, and the Chacóns taught them a lot about the land. But when Marino Chacón showed them plans to triple the size of the 80-acre farm, the biologists were devastated.

Back at their home university, Finkenbinder and his students wrote letters to the Chacón family to convey the beauty and importance of the forest. They realized the Chacóns needed to make a living. But they also wanted to communicate how they as biologists saw the forest: for example, they explained how it takes 500 years for a cleared patch of primary forest to return to its original state, and showed how indigenous species crucial for sustaining the environment became homeless in such a cleared forest.

In 1983, Finkenbinder received a phone call from Marino Chacón. After a long day of clearing land for their expanded farm, he and his father took a long look at the open space in front of them. They had seen that further clearing of the land would remove the forest and its inhabitants, which they loved. Their grandchildren would not be able to enjoy the land as they did.

Innovators to the core, the Chacóns came up with a plan: they stopped clearing trees, they sold their cows, and they turned their pastures into orchards. They added peach and plum trees to their existing apple crop. They improved the forest's dramatic hiking trails. They invited birdwatchers and fishers to come to their valley.

In 1998, Southern Nazarene University opened a field station for research. Known as the Quetzal Education Research Center (QERC), it is named after a precious and endangered bird in the region. In early 2001, a laboratory and dormitory building was completed. Ten thousand visitors from almost every discipline of knowledge now visit the valley every year.

The valley has a transforming effect on its visitors, including author Neuenschwander, who has taught astronomy at the field station for the last couple of years.

"Your first arrival there is a moment of epiphany," he says. "You come prepared to teach astronomy in familiar ways, but here you are utterly overwhelmed in a forest of 100-foot oak trees, the birds are as colorful as the flowers, and photosynthesis works overtime. ...All astronomy courses describe tidal forces, but here...our lesson on tides occurs on the Manuel Antonio beach, with professor and students up to our necks in the high tide, the third-quarter moon visible over our heads."

This new ecological awareness proved to be a blessing for the Chacóns, who have a prosperous business which now includes the organization of tours.

"I thank God every day that I did not have a chain saw when I started making a dairy," Efrain says. "By the time I would have realized the importance of the forest it would have disappeared. The forest is there only because I had an axe."

Faced with a difficult decision, the Chacón family came up with a solution that promotes environmental sustainability and preserves some of the most biologically important land in the world. - By Ben Stein

Related websites:

Quetzal Education Research Center

Sigma Pi Sigma Honor Society (Publisher of Radiations)

[Contact: Dwight Neuenschwander, Leo and Zana Finkenbinder, Ben Stein]

17-Jul-2001