Ask JB Mason the age-old question: “What did you do over your summer break?” and they will have quite the tale to tell.
Mason’s recent travels took them to a Civil War battlefield in Virginia and Mexico City, but not for leisure activities. Instead, they applied their lessons in horticulture – and some muscle – to change the landscape of two contrasting settings.
Hailing from Commercial Point, a small farming community south of Columbus, Ohio, Mason is in their third year of the horticulture program at Salem, concentrating in urban forestry. It is obvious, however, that the campus cannot contain Mason’s desire to expand their boundaries for learning.
Mexico City, Mexico
Last spring, Mason participated in a travel abroad course through that took them to Mexico City for a week filled with learning opportunities and discovery. They worked with farmers – known as chinamperos – who practice a native style of farming to grow vegetables and flowers on manmade floating island-like plots, called chinampas.
“It was sadly only a week, but it was one of the most adventurous weeks of my life thus far,” they stated. “The chinamperos showed us how they grow vegetables and how they do almost everything by hand. It was amazing to see so much care going into each of the plants.”
After learning about the processes used in the growing season, the chinamperos shared that they were dealing with a plague involving a pest called a tuza, as well as multiple water hose problems
“When my group started working on ideas to manage these problems, I remembered learning about companion planting in a class I took at Salem. Someone from my group mentioned this and I knew it could be a possible solution,” Mason shared. “In my sustainable systems in horticulture class, I learned about the 16 minerals that a plant needs, macro and micro. I also learned how planting multiple types of plants together can strengthen the soil and even the plants themselves.
“Using what I knew and what I had learned from my classmates, we came up with a solution of garlic and lavender as a natural repellent for the tuzas. I reassured my classmates that lavender and garlic are drought resistant plants and would not cause more problems with water security.”
In the short time spent in Mexico City, Mason did get to take in the culture and traditions of the area where they stayed.
“One thing I noticed, and it may have just been the school we worked with while we were there, but they are still very attached to the church,” they said. “There were a lot of gorgeous churches we visited and I saw many religious figures in common places like on the side of the road or nestled in a corner.
“One major thing I learned from the chinamperos is using the simplest technology possible and the history involved with this type of farming, seeing how a chinampa cycles energy and nutrients for itself.”
Manassas National Battlefield Park
Logging 450 service hours over this past summer, Mason was a member of an AmeriCorps crew that worked on the Manassas National Battlefield Park, specifically on a former Civil War era plantation owned by a free Black man named James Robinson, also known as Gentleman Jim.
“I worked on a chainsaw crew,” Mason shared. “We were trained to use, clean and maintain the saws. The work we did on Gentleman Jim's plantation involved an invasive plant species called autumn olive. This species grew so fast and thick that the maintenance workers could not properly plow the fields. My crew and I worked to restore the fence row on two of three fields at the battlefield. We did this by cleaning up fallen trees and cutting down any autumn olive that we found.”
This park was the site of two major Civil War battles: the First Battle of Bull Run and the Second Battle of Bull Run. It was where Confederate Gen. Thomas J. Jackson acquired his nickname “Stonewall.”
Mason and their crew members completed a term of national service with the Appalachian Conservation Corps, which is a program of Conservation Legacy, a national non-profit federation of conservation service programs that run local programming unique to their areas.
“My summer with AmeriCorp has been my most fun and educational summer in my 21 years of life, so far,” Mason said. “The work was horticulture related, mainly in the forestry department, and I learned more about wildlife and natural plant life throughout Appalachia. And this was during the hottest part of the summer!
“Being part of two amazing groups, both the study abroad and the horticulture program at Salem makes me so excited to see the future of conservation.”
Cutline A: JB Mason
Cutline B: JB Mason at work in Mexico City, Mexico
Cutline C: Work on the Manassas National Battlefield Park included “bucking” a tree found on the ground.
Cutline D: Tools of the trade included this over-sized chainsaw shown being carried by JB Mason.