Constantine Brown

There exists a photo of me surrounded by buckets, hands completely coated in the slimy remnants of half-rotted fruit. I’m smiling widely and wearing a tidy and crisp uniform that isn’t quite so crisp anymore.

The fruit is Pawpaw, and I’m at the Ohio Pawpaw Festival. I’m running a seed drive for my Eagle Project with the Scouts BSA: I’m using the seeds for reforesting a cleared area of my local campground.

YMCA Camp Shiffer has an open area cleared of invasive species. My project is part of a long-term reforestation/ land reclaimation project, replanting the area with native hardwoods (1-2 years old), and shielding the trees against deer damage. I wanted to do an effective and responsible job of my project, so I consulted with local orchardists and nurseries, The Union County Soil and Water Conservation district, and my local forester with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for their advice on biodiversity and forest conservation.

There have been some changes and setbacks in the project. Normally a warm fall is an enjoyable experience, but I was getting worried when it was the first week of December and we *still* hadn’t had a hard enough freeze for most of the trees to go dormant enough to plant.

But the first setback was figuring out what trees I was going to plant: slow-growing or fast-growing? Tall or short? Shade-loving or sun-loving? I made the choice to plant Pawpaw carefully. While in an ideal world, I could plant slow-growing high-value species (such as chestnut or oak) , learning more about the nature of native reforestation of damaged areas changed my mind.

This specific camp area had previously been infested with destructive levels of invasive honeysuckle growth, but had only recently been cleared for native reforestation. The honeysuckle would take over again if we didn’t get trees up, and fast. We planted Tulip poplar interplanted with slower growing understory trees such as native Pawpaw. In this way, the Tulip poplar shoots up in growth, preventing the establishment of invasive species, and in the process it shades the shade-loving Pawpaw tree.

All together, my team planted 100 Tulip Poplars, 50 Shadbush Serviceberries, 25 Wild Cherry trees, 1 Pawpaw sapling, and over 1000 Pawpaw seeds divided into sets of ten seeds each. Now that the area planted has native tree cover, invasive species will not be able to spread so rapidly. All of the deer protection we installed should (fingers crossed) keep the deer from harming the young trees. The fruit will support local wildlife and plantlife. Both the YMCA CEO and the camp property committee look forward to the aesthetic benefits of increased shade and flowering trees.

In total, the project was a great success. I have entrusted the caretaking of the budding young trees to Troop 87, the home troop of Camp Shiffer.

I’m interested in doing more projects like this in the future, especially since I learned so much!

A typical view of the site.

Propagating nursery of hardy native fruit trees founded in Central Ohio. I built every greenhouse by hand, and installed the irrigation line in the 3.5 acre orchard.

Director of Dan Beard Scout Reservation Ecology Center

For the past 4 years I've worked as Dan Beard Council Reservation NEST Ecology Center staff. I lead classes for youth ages 11 through 17 in varied fields of environmental science. Over the summer, I've taught classes in mycology, fisheries management, ornithology, forestry, and others. I report information about the environmental health of the property to the local rangers. I cull diseased elms in the local woodland and survey for invasive species across the Little Miami River Region. I manage radio training and emergency procedures for nine employees, six direct reports, and 60 youth. The NEST Center is also a natural science museum and I report inventory for the museum's collection. This past year I served as Director, which means I write the class syllabi, and directly manage the center itself.

Audio-visual technician for First Presbyterian

Accessibility infrastructure construction in Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Meals on Wheels food prep volunteer

In my life outside of environmental work, I participate extensively in educational historical re-enactment with the Society for Creative Anachronism.

I am a poet (I am currently editing a collection made up of work that I've written over the past 3 years to publish), a gardener, an avid reader, and a maker.
My most recent personal project was 3D printing a scale model of a moon lander.

On campus, I am also an active member in Buckeyes For Accessibility, which is the OSU Club representing the interests and activism of the Disabled community here. I'm studying GIS technology, specifically ARCGIS, in order to better help the Ecological Restoration Club with their work on campus. And just for fun, I play with the Board to Death board gaming club. It’s a great way to make new friends!

I've stayed connected with the communities I built in my high school years. I serve as an adult leader with my old BSA Scout troop, female Scout Troop 777. I organize educational, recreational, and volunteering opportunities for these young women. This winter, we went on a trip to the International Wolf Center to learn about the biology and ecosystem role of wolves.