Fall/Winter Digital Newsleaf 2024
In this issue, we'll discover the true science behind nature's medicine, tips to create change through civic engagement, and read "ground-breaking" details about the future of Long Branch Farm & Trails. There are also lots of engaging and exciting seasonal programs you won't want to miss this season!
September | October | November | December | 2024
A Seasonal Magazine for Members of Cincinnati Nature Center
Director’s Message
“Long Branch is
seeing a resurgence
of interest—this time
with a decidedly
21st-century
take on how a
modest farm can
become a vibrant
part of modern
ex-urban lifestyles.”
It’s been over 50 years since Neil and Camilla McElroy donated their farm to Cincinnati
Nature Center in the hopes that the land would be used to “teach people about the
sources of food and fber.” For three decades, the Nature Center continued the McElroy’s
tradition of managing the land as a small working farm, with some livestock, some
gardens, and some crops. School buses would roll in with kids and parents alike, eager
to pet the animals, dig into the soil, and taste the bounties only a farm can ofer.
Unfortunately, in the early 2000s, the State of Ohio pulled “agricultural education” out
of the public school curriculum. Without this mandate, the impetus for feld trips to
farms dried up statewide, as did the monies to help subsidize running such a farm. Te
Nature Center was left with little choice but to shutter the farm operation and pivot to
making the best of the recreational aspects of Long Branch Farm…and now Trails.
For the past couple of decades, that’s worked out just fne, as many of our members have
enjoyed our fve miles of trails through a wonderful, pastoral landscape. In the past fve
years, interest in Long Branch has taken of with more than 40,000 visits per year. Tis,
with no real amenities other than a couple of pit toilets, several dilapidated barns, and
an old one-lane bridge that, as of this spring, was deemed “condemned” in the wake of a
major storm event.
Meanwhile, our conservation team and a small army of dedicated volunteers have
been quietly, unassumingly growing thousands of native plants and collaborating with
regional universities, such as the University of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
University, to study how those plants can help restore retired croplands—all of this with
no ofces, no labs, one port-a-let, and a repurposed chicken coop as a processing facility.
And yet, this team produced more than 17,000 plants last year alone! Not to mention
several wildly popular forest and farm foraging programs, bringing our community into
the woods and felds to, once again, learn about the “sources of food and fber.”
Long Branch is seeing a resurgence of interest —this time with a decidedly 21st-century
take on how a modest farm can become a vibrant part of modern exurban lifestyles.
Te Nature Center’s emphasis on native plants—for neighborhood gardens, farm
feld restoration, and of course, for consuming—has inspired conservation within our
community in a whole new way.
So, the time has come to help Long Branch’s facilities and amenities catch up with all of
this progress and enthusiasm. To that end, we are pleased to announce that the bridge
over O’Bannon Creek will be replaced this fall with a new, two-lane bridge complete
with guard rails.
Our conservation team will soon have a new home as we break ground this fall to build
a Field Station to properly support and expand our amazing conservation, research,
and education programs at Long Branch. Te future building will serve as a hub for
work and learning, but the “feld station” will comprise the entire 200-acre area on the
northeast side of Gaynor Road. Once complete, Cincinnati Nature Center will be one of
only a few nature centers, if not the only one in the country with such a facility—truly
putting us at the vanguard of community-based conservation work.
LONG BRANCH 2.0
Jef Corney
Executive Director
(513) 965-4246
jcorney@cincynature.org
2 Newsleaf | Fall/Winter 2024
Nature's Remedy: Healing
Elderberry Mocktail
Contents
Newsleaf is published three times each year and is a
benefit of Cincinnati Nature Center membership. All
artwork and text is copyrighted by Cincinnati Nature
Center. Reprint by written permission only. Please notify
membership@cincynature.org of address changes.
Printed on 30% post-consumer recycled paper using soy inks.
Spider in web illuminated by morning light
Photo by Shannan Davis
In This Issue
In Every Issue
12
Calendar
16
Programs
23
Honor and
Memorial Gifts
What's Growing on at
Long Branch?
10
A New Field Station for
Long Branch
21
22
Ask the
Naturalist
Showing
Up
There's Real-Science Behind the
Forest's Feel-Good Nature
Want to reduce your carbon footprint?
Receive an emailed version of this seasonal magazine
instead! Email membership@cincynature.org to opt into
our digital Newsleaf today.
Cover Photo:
Frosted field
Photo by Edward Goode, 2021 Cincinnati
Nature Center Photo Contest submission.
Fall/Winter 2024 | CincyNature.org 3
What are we doing and
why are we doing it?
Internally, the purpose of our foraged
and farmed operation is visitor
engagement, but you can think of
it as a way of farming—borrowing
from multiple approaches—that
grows interesting things for you
to do, learn, eat, cultivate, make,
and enjoy related to native plants.
Whether it’s through purposeful
work, learning opportunities, or
even beer brewed with native edible
plants in collaboration with a local
brewery to create a “conservation in a
glass” experience, it’s all about using
native edible foods to help visitors
build relationships with nature. It’s
a celebration of hyper-local native
foods that speaks to Cincinnati
Nature Center’s mission of Inspiring
Conservation and its Plant
Native initiative.
Native
In keeping with our Plant Native
focus, the species we grow are nearly
all native to our region. Like native
pollinator plants, native edibles are
hardy once established, and they feed
native wildlife.
Restrictive in some ways, focusing
solely on edible native species has
allowed us to dive deep into their
botany, history, and related foodways.
You won’t find apples from (Eastern
Asia) or cabbage (native to Europe),
but you’ll delight over the honey
caramel flavor of American persimmon
(Diospyros virginiana) and Ohio’s
own “taste of the tropics,” pawpaw
(Asimina triloba).
Perennial
You might be familiar with garden
annuals, those species that are planted
from seed each year. Our focus is
on long-lived, mostly woody trees
and shrubs with herbaceous plants
underneath. Growing perennials saves
time and allows us to invest in plants
over the long term. It also assures
we always have living roots in the
soil, protecting it from erosion. We
continually add wood chips and old
hay on top of the ground, which soil
life will consume over time, releasing
nutrients for the plants to use.
What’s Growing on
at Long Branch?
A Foraged and Farmed Update
By Jason Neumann, Public Programs Manager
“It’s a celebration of hyper-local native foods that
speaks to Cincinnati Nature Center’s mission”
Which plants do you
pick to grow and why?
New terminology will help expound on this question. We are farming a native
perennial polyculture. Examining each word in the term:
Our foraged and farmed operation is partly aimed at bringing back a true sense of
"farm" to Long Branch Farm & Trails, but for us, it's much more than merely foraging.
It's generated a fair amount of inquiry, so it's time to explain some of the purpose,
philosophy, and principles behind what we're doing.
4 Newsleaf | Fall/Winter 2024
Polyculture
If you’ve seen a large field of corn
on the side of the highway, that’s
monoculture (mono means one), an
example of growing one crop at a
time. We’re growing several (poly
means many) mixed species together.
Growing multiple species together is
ecologically better for wildlife—the
more kinds of plants, the more insects
and animals are fed. This diversity
makes our operation more resilient
in the face of a changing climate,
ensuring there’s always something to
harvest even if some crops do poorly
in a given year. In polyculture, we plant
mimicking the forest, maximizing
space using layers—canopy,
understory, shrub, and herbaceous
layers are planted and maintained to
ofer many edible and useful plants.
Is it “foraged” anymore if we
are growing and tending it?
To grow for volume and time
efciency, we are “agriculturalizing”
native species. That is, we’re
cultivating wild crops agriculturally.
Also known as indigenous plant
agriculture, growing en masse allows
us to space, train, and prune trees and
shrubs for more intensive production,
while also assuring there’s no risk of
overharvest of wild populations.
We’re also wild tending several
species. In wild tending, invasive
plants are removed, and self-
perpetuating native plant populations
are encouraged, modeling nature’s
cues. When done well, these
populations look like they’re wild. For
example, we’re wild tending pawpaw,
wild blackberries, and wild black
raspberries. By the way, this year’s
crop of black raspberries is destined
to become scrumptious syrup used in
signature cocktails at Forager's Fest
this September!
What are the future plans for the
foraged and farmed operation?
• We’re growing a future basketry
program—one of our staf even
attended a “basket camp” to
learn the craft.
• We’re expanding cultivation of
medicinal herbs for some of
our classes.
• We’re planning an American hazelnut
(Corylus americana) grove.
• We’ll be creating more foraged
and farmed dyes and pigments
for crafting.
Well, that’s what’s growing on… and
there’s lots more to grow!
How can you get involved?
Join us for our upcoming program:
Forager's Workshop—Autumn Bounty!
Sunday, October 27, 2–6 pm
Learn more on page 17.
Kelly Volz
Fall/Winter 2024 | CincyNature.org 5
Growing up, my parents rarely knew
where I was, only that I was in the
woods. The environment inside my
house was volatile at best, and violent
at worst. But, while it could sometimes
be lonely, it was easy to avoid
angering my parents by just keeping
myself hidden in the woods. Their
general lack of interest in me meant
that I had unfettered and unsupervised
access to the great outdoors.
Being outside made—and still makes—
me happy. Knowing what I know now,
it’s clear that my urge to be barefoot
in the woods was not solely motivated
by fear of being inside, but also
because being in the woods was a
form of self-medication.
There is ample evidence supporting
the role of nature in our physical and
mental well-being. There is also plenty
of data showing how time in nature
can help build resiliency in children.
It would take volumes to present
all these data, so instead, I want to
present a small curation of my favorite.
Tere’s Real Science Behind the Forest’s
FEEL-GOOD NATURE
BENEATH OUR FEET
There is a bacteria that lives in the
soil named Mycobacterium vaccae
that stimulates our brains to release
serotonin. This, in turn, reduces stress
and helps make us happy. This same
bacteria has also been extensively
studied in the medical field because
of its tendency to strengthen immune
responses in patients with cancer
and other autoimmune diseases. Just
consider that again. A bacteria that we
regularly encounter outside actually
improves our bodies’ ability to fight of
disease, and it helps make us happy
through a well-studied neurochemical
pathway via serotonin. This same
pathway is often manipulated by
pharmaceuticals to achieve the same
result. In the interest of full disclosure,
I choose to supplement my time
outdoors with exactly these types
of pharmaceuticals.
Interestingly, tuberculosis is caused
by a related species of bacteria called
Mycobacterium tuberculosis. And in
a poetic twist, doctors now use M.
vaccae to boost the immune system
of people sufering from tuberculosis.
That is, they use one Mycobacterium
to fight another. But I digress.
My point is that even microscopic
organisms in the soil beneath your feet
have direct and beneficial impacts on
human health and happiness. “Rub
some dirt on it,” indeed!
THE CONIFEROUS
AND ODORIFEROUS
The needles of conifers contain a
group of phytochemicals called
phytoncides that are naturally
produced by plants to repel
herbivorous insects. In particular, a
phytoncide called pinene (which gives
pines their addictive smell) stimulates
white blood cells to destroy cancer
cells and viruses. It seems that not only
does pinene activate a specific group
of white blood cells called “Natural
Killer Cells,” but they make the Natural
Killer Cells even more lethal to cancer.
Other odoriferous plants also produce
pinene, including eucalyptus, oranges,
marijuana, and aromatic herbs like dill,
rosemary, and basil. So, every time you
’s
NATURE
smell pine, herbs, or marijuana, your
immune system gets a little boost.
Looking back, my upstairs neighbors
in college were actually helping
me every time they smoked…um…
oregano at 2 am.
FRACTALS
Fractals are patterns that repeat
themselves over and over again at
diferent scales. Take, for example, a
fern frond upon which sits a number
of smaller frondlets that themselves
have a series of even smaller frondlets,
and these frondlets have even smaller
frondlets, etc. At every scale, the
pattern of the fronds and frondlets
are the same.
Fractals found in nature are called
natural fractals or statistical fractals
because they don’t repeat themselves
exactly. For instance, there is always
a little randomness that prevents
frondlets from being exact duplicates
of the fronds. Nature is never perfect.
Exact fractals, on the other hand, are
just that—exact. The pattern repeats
exactly at every scale. Why is this
important? Well, hold your frondlet,
I’m getting to it.
It turns out that even our brains
are physically structured in fractal
patterns. We even process information
in a fractal pattern. Sensations travel
fractal pathways in our brains and
initiate behaviors that themselves are
manifested via connections that are,
yes, fractals. This fractal nature of
our brains is hypothesized to be one
reason why we seem to find fractals so
dang satisfying to look at. But there’s
more to it than just aesthetics. For
reasons that we don’t fully understand,
when we view fractals, we feel less
stressed, we become better able to
cope with frustration, and our ability
to focus and learn new information
improves. Even when we are not
consciously aware that we are viewing
fractals, our brains are tuned to locate
and respond to fractal patterns.
Amazingly, but not surprisingly, our
brains are significantly more sensitive
to natural fractals—the ones we
see when we hike outside—than to
exact fractal patterns, which are less
routinely encountered.
NATURE Rx
It probably comes as no surprise to
you that spending time in nature
helps our physical and mental health.
I’ve always felt the benefits of being
outside, but when we uncover the
scientific mechanisms underlying
those benefits, it solidifies for me that
even when I felt alone, Mother Nature
was taking care of me. It’s no wonder
that my preferred brand of self-care
is hiking and gardening. There’s just
something about being covered in
mud that you can’t get out of a bottle.
By Cory Christopher,
Director of Conservation
Fall/Winter 2024 | CincyNature.org 7
It’s a common movie plot: a
community of strangers with
seemingly nothing in common find
themselves thrown together. As
they face challenges, they show
up for one another, bringing their
unique perspectives and talents.
Trust, appreciation, and friendship
grow. They find belonging and
shared purpose where once was
anonymity and isolation. The
credits roll and viewers sigh,
wishing they could find such
connection and meaning.
Many Americans feel socially
isolated, but nature lovers might
feel especially alone while
wondering how to make their
communities more pleasant,
healthy, and life-afrming. There
are so many barriers. We might
want to walk or bike to work, but
there are no sidewalks or bike
lanes. We want less development
As you start to reliably and respectfully show up and ofer help, you’ll meet new
people and come to be known as someone who cares and can be trusted.
People, even those in public
ofce, are more likely to be
influenced by those they know
and trust. As you discover the
complexity of local issues and the
various perspectives needed to
address them, you may start to
question the common narrative
of polarization and mistrust. Most
folks are doing the best they can—
often with diferent priorities and
life experiences.
While helping make your
community an economically and
environmentally healthy place to
live, play, and work, you might
also feel a sense of belonging,
connection, and purpose that
some people only find in movies.
Nature and people will thrive. And
as you help local decision makers
become less polarized and more
concerned about the environment,
the impact may ripple out to
state and eventually national
decision makers. All because
YOU SHOWED UP!
and more greenspace but have
no right to tell others what to
do with their land. We want
downward-facing lights to protect
dark skies, native plants along
roadsides, or an aggregated price
for green-sourced electricity. What
can we do? One way forward is
through civic engagement. The
trustees, commissioners, mayors,
administrators, planners, and
other decision makers in your
community are real people doing
their best and giving their time for
the common good, or at least we
hope they are. It’s hard to trust
them if we don’t know them. It
would be helpful to know who
they are, what matters to them,
and which issues keep them up
at night.
In the past, people lived in small
towns where public ofcials
and decision makers were
SHOWI NG U P
BY CO N N I E O ’ CO N N O R , D I R EC TO R O F A P P LI E D LE A R N I N G
neighbors, relatives, friends or
business owners. But nowadays
it takes special efort, with our
suburban commuting lifestyle, to
understand what happens behind
the scenes in our communities.
One administrator worries
about funding road repairs;
one mayor seeks compromise
as citizens argue over diferent
uses for a piece of land. In many
cases, constituents only appear
at meetings when they want
something. Can regular citizens
and their public decision makers
find better ways to connect?
It's been said that
DECISIONS ARE
MADE BY THOSE
WHO SHOW UP.
8 Newsleaf | Fall/Winter 2024
1.
Explore the website for your
township, city, or village to find out
when and where public meetings
are held. If available, sign up for your
municipal newsletter.
2.
Attend public meetings and listen,
listen, listen. Seek first to understand
before promoting your own agenda.
3.
Prepare yourself. Know the facts
beyond your personal opinions and
assumptions. Talk to local government
and non-profit organizations and to
other community members; research
how other communities have
successfully addressed your concerns.
4.
Decide which public ofcials you’re
most comfortable talking to and
introduce yourself. Arrange to meet
for cofee, seek common ground and
to learn how you might be of service
to the community in terms of the
issues you care about.
Your public ofcials have shown up, and you can too.
There are many ways to do so:
5.
Ask about volunteer positions for
citizens on committees or commissions
for parks, zoning, housing, etc., and learn
the qualifications and process to join.
6.
VOTE. Learn which local and state public
ofcials support conservation and how
you can support them. If nobody seems
interested in conservation, consider
running for ofce yourself or supporting
someone in doing so.
7.
Help ensure a safe and participatory
political environment by volunteering as
a poll observer or assistant. Regardless
of party, showing up will earn respect
and shows that you care.
8.
Encourage voter engagement by
becoming a precinct captain (liaison
between voters and ofcials) for your
political party. Help voters be better
informed by explaining the issues that
your party’s candidates care about.
LEARN MORE, DO MORE!
Nature enthusiasts can help influence whether a community has bike trails, green space, native
landscaping, efective recycling, green energy, and more. With just a little efort and engagement,
you can bring nature to the forefront of civic conversations. Join us for a new upcoming course
Getting Things Done: Civic Engagement for Conservation to learn how local governments work, where
to find information, and where to find opportunities for networking and respectful civic engagement.
To find out more, please contact Connie O'Connor, Director of Applied Learning,
at coconnor@cincynature.org
Fall/Winter 2024 | CincyNature.org 9
A NEW FIELD STATION
FOR LONG BRANCH
By Laura Schmid, Associate Director of Development
This fall, Cincinnati Nature Center will break ground on
a brand-new field station at Long Branch Farm & Trails.
This will be the Nature Center’s
first new building since the Rowe
Visitor Center was built in 1971.
Executive Director Jeff Corney
says, “It’s been a long time
coming. In the past 15 years, our
program participants have more
than doubled, we’ve debuted
several large community events, our
membership has tripled, and we’ve
wholly expanded our conservation
and research work. We’ve
repurposed and restored several
buildings over the years, but
now it’s time to meet our critical
mission needs and take a fresh
approach at Long Branch.”
Among the most recent
enterprises is the native plant
propagation facility at Long
Branch Farm, located on the 212-
acre area that once served as an
educational farm. Since 2017, a
resolute crew has been building
hoop houses, nurturing thousands
of seedlings, and learning how to
retail native plants in a way that
promotes the Nature Center’s
mission and subsidizes the work.
Reimagining the space has
required ingenuity and stick-to-
itiveness. Farm operations were
shuttered in 2005, leaving little
infrastructure that was suitable
or even safe to utilize. The plant
propagation team has made do
with minimal water supply and
without on-site ofces, electricity,
and even restrooms. Our brave
staf have adapted to the rustic
amenities. They work on mobile
devices in all seasons and all-
weather conditions. They’ve
implemented an experimental
solar-generated pump to extract
water from a nearby pond. And
they have one port-o-potty.
Despite these hurdles, the
installation has been an
overwhelming success. Native
plant production has increased
four-fold, restoration projects have
expanded, and field research—in
partnership with the University of
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
University—is well underway.
Still, the facilities are not suitable
for either continued expansion
or public access. The new 4,000
square-foot field station will serve
as a hub for these conservation
activities. The new building and
enhanced propagation facilities
will include:
•
Ofce space and restrooms
•
Lab workstations
•
Native plant seed storage
•
Program meeting space
•
Native seed processing barn
•
Equipment space
•
Additional plant cultivation
hoop houses
Additionally, infrastructure
upgrades will allow visitor access
and increased capacity, including
expanded water supply for
irrigation, sewer hook-up, roads,
and parking lots.
The estimated cost
of the Field Station
is $3.6 million.
Fortunately, we’ve
had several generous
and visionary donors
invest in the fully
funded project.
“Considering what we’ve been
able to do out there with so
little to work with, I’m excited to
think about everything we can
accomplish with a dedicated
building. I want to create a space
where everyone—professionals
and homeowners alike—can learn
to restore, conserve, and protect
our natural areas,” says Director
of Conservation Cory Christopher.
“There’s so much happening at
our Long Branch nursery. Not just
plant propagation, but research
and land management. We need to
be where the action is.”
10 Newsleaf | Fall/Winter 2024
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