Page 16 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • November 23, 2011 Club explores Mayan jungles with Doug Goodell by John Koster “It’s hard to find a jaguar when you’re got a camera,” Doug Goodell told the 20 members of the Glen Rock Garden Club who “toured” the Selva Maya, the Mayan rain forest, from the comfort of the Glen Rock Annex. Introduced by Program Chair Don Levine, Goodell, a Ridgewood photographer and writer of four published books about nature, introduced his audience to the jungles of the Maya with a program of slides and a dryly humorous lecture where the fun had a serious purpose: the promotion of eco-tourism in Central America as an economic alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture. A retired research scientist with a doctorate in metallurgy from the University of Michigan and a corporate background, Goodell saved the science for the end of the lecture. He explained with photographs of massive buttress roots of jungle trees that the topsoil in the Mayan jungle at the intersection of southernmost Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, is only three to five inches deep atop limestone. To maintain subsistence agriculture, the people have to cut down and burn the trees every five to seven years. The burning generates potash, which fertilizes the soil for a few years, but also sends smoke clouds over the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas and urban Mexico, and threatens species that are already endangered. Goodell said 50 percent of the world’s species live in the rain forests, which cover Doug Goodell only seven percent of the land mass. Most of the Selva Maya, he said, is second-growth forest because the mahogany and other canopy trees were cut down for luxury furniture and wall paneling. He showed pictures of the indiscriminate logging and the burning of more recent tree cutting that drew groans from the audience. Just how varied the species were was the subject of a slide show of glorious color photographs taken in coordination with Allendale’s Jim Wright and Stiles Thomas and with Jerry Barrack. Some looked as familiar as the white-tailed deer, the puma, and the gray fox -- but others, the birds in particular, were a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes not much seen in Northwest Bergen County. Goodell’s next book, “Paradise of Nature: Costa Rica,” will be published in spring 2012, but he offered the club members a look at an advance copy. The nature photos in the slide show evoked warm affection as Goodell told stories of his attempts to photograph a wild jaguar -- he had to settle for a jaguar in a zoo -- and the photos he took of some rare and exotic birds and animals. One series showed a mother jacamar teaching a fledging to fly, but Goodell said he couldn’t follow the whole process for fear of disrupting the training. The metaphor for the jungle is the “giveand-take palm” -- a tree with sharp spikes that can slash a tourist who grabs one for support when stumbling, but with a balm inside that can help heal the wounds once the stem is cut open. Doug and his wife Debbie have turned their trips into an adventure and into an advocacy of protecting the natural world through introducing more people to the advantages of hunting with a camera, and by encouraging eco-tourism to help the people of Central America save the rain forests and feed and educate their own families at the same time. Costa Rica in particular, he said, is a great venue for eco-tourism, though in the Selva Maya he visited in Belize and Guatemala, tourists are often bitten by the deadly fer-delance viper. Resort hotels have contracts with helicopters to fly victims out and try to save their lives. Rescues are not always successful. “I had always had an interest in photography, and when I retired as a research scientist in 1998, it took over,” Goodell said. His first book was about the Celery Farm in Allendale. Since then, he has expanded to cover wildlife in Central America and to urge people to save the rain forests by the simple act of seeing them. The Glen Rock Garden Club meets at the Glen Rock Annex on the third Tuesday of the month. Prospective members are welcome.