Spring 2008

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Have auger, will travel

Submitted by Virginia Coultas, Lynn's wife. The couple resides in Havana, Florida.   

Since Lynn Coultas (Charles L.) received his M.S. in agronomy from Iowa State in l951, he and his trusty soil auger have sampled soils in Honduras, Columbia, Nicaragua, Ghana, Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Haiti and Zambia—not to mention many states in these United States. Many a customs officer has asked, “What’s this?” as he unwrapped the auger and also looked in puzzlement over the bags of “dirt” (the accompanying authorization papers usually satisfied the official). The auger wasn’t always easy to pack, but it was essential equipment on any trip—even pleasure trips. There just might be an interesting soil to examine.

At Iowa State he studied under Frank Riecken, a much-admired professor and mentor, and he tramped over many an Iowa farm with his trusty auger. After serving two years in the army during the Korean War his agronomic career resumed back in Western Iowa as assistant county agent—with the job of educating farmers on how to use the USDA soil survey more effectively. From that position he became county extension director for Shelby County.

Always intrigued by other countries, he left Iowa in l957 to take a research position with Standard Fruit Company in Honduras. Traveling by banana boat from New Orleans to La Ceiba was quite an adventure with his wife, Virginia, and three sons in tow—the youngest just five weeks old. The research work was interesting, involving lab and field work—traveling over the mountains on a motor car (rail) to the banana fields. He did not stay with Standard Fruit Company in Honduras long, but that association led to sampling soils for them in Columbia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica locating suitable soils for banana cultivation.

Africa was the next stop working in Ghana for the International Cooperation Administration (now U.S. AID). He headed up an agricultural survey team charged with discovering the feasibility of a cattle ranching program. This was the first AID mission to the first independent African country south of the Sahara. Ghana achieved its independence in l957; Lynn and family arrived in Sept. of l958. As a result of their work the cattle ranching scheme was not considered a viable undertaking, but an extensive soil survey, Report on the Soil Survey of Northwestern Ashanti Tain Basin, came out of this work.

In 1965, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and took a position at Florida A&M University (FAMU), Tallahassee, Fla. teaching soils and horticulture. He was hired as an associate professor to train minority students in soil survey work to fill slots in the Soil Conservation Service and the U.S. Forest Service. Several of his students have gone on to be outstanding soil scientists—one heading the top position in the Florida NRCS. In addition, he started the wetland ecology program at FAMU. The soils maps of Florida had large areas described simply as “marsh” or “swamp”. Lynn and his auger along with his students got their feet wet, literally, mapping these areas all along the Gulf Coast. The soils maps of the Florida coasts are no longer classified as simply “marsh” or “swamp.” He was the first to identify a buried upland soil in the marsh. The wetland ecology program, still ongoing, is an interdisciplinary one. Out of this work he and Dr. Ping Hsieh, his successor, edited a book, Ecology and Management of tidal marshes: a model from the Gulf of Mexico. He has written some sixty other research publications.

In addition to this academic work, Lynn, has worked for extended periods on agriculture development in Haiti, Belize and Zambia on church related projects.

In his retirement years, he continues to take his auger with him, and will jump at the chance to dig yet another hole. On a sailing trip to Mexico (a pleasure trip) his auger was on board, and he examined the soils on a mangrove island. From this he wrote a paper along with two Mexican soil scientists. He has worked cooperatively with researchers from the Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy and Florida International University. He served on a peer review of the work being done by the Florida Everglades Restoration Project. His current collaboration is with archeologists of the National Park Service (See the spring issue of Soil Survey Horizons for an article entitled: Petrocalcic Horizon Formation and Prehistoric People's Effect on Everglades Tree Island Soils, Florida.)

With his 80th birthday just a few months away, he is still eager to get his feet wet, and his auger is at ready.