Essay On Chimney Swifts

I decided I wanted to build the chimney swift tower during an Envirothon meeting when Judy Semroc of the Natural History Museum in Cleveland brought up concerns about taking down the masonry smokestack on the side of the school. It was home to many chimney swifts, but the interesting thing is, only one mating pair nests in a tower, no matter the size, though hundreds more may roost there. I really liked this project because it was something I actually cared about, and was something different. I spoke to some people from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for funding, but they referred me to the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF). The NWTF and the Home Depot fully funded my project, so I didn’t need anything from the Chardon VFW (who
support my Boy Scout Troop) or the school/Envirothon team. An Eagle Scout Project is defined as, “While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community.” There is no minimum time requirement for an Eagle Scout Project, but a total of roughly 115 hours were spent on this tower. One of the main requirements is that it must “demonstrate leadership,” and I believe that the hardest parts of that are planning and communication. Planning around my own conflicts such as the school musical and tennis, and around uncontrollable conflicts such as the weather impeding painting, proved difficult. We painted inside Celebration Lutheran Church to get out of the cold April rain, and kept postponing the installation date until the weather cleared up. The musical prevented me from building some of the stuff, but as soon as it ended I got right back to it.
The project and paperwork doesn’t have to be completed until the scout’s 18th birthday, which isn’t until February, but I had to get the tower up before the birds came back from migration, and with an early spring this year, I was under quite a bit of pressure. I am glad to finally be done, and beyond grateful to all the people who helped me: Mrs. Judy Semroc for starting the idea, support from Mr. Dan Best with the Geauga Park District and Mrs. Jamey Emmert with the ODNR for information about chimney swifts, Mrs. Marilyn Rohr for providing the book with directions on how to build the tower and encouraging me along the way, Mr. Adam Hollobaugh for representing the NWTF, Mrs. Carrie Burke and Mr. Frank Willis from Home Depot for helping me cut the large plywood sheets, Mr. Chris May and his son for helping me screw the plate to the building, Sarah Eisenhart, Jamie Fowle, Connor Prusha, and Drew Cressman for helping me paint the pieces, Nick Schragal, Alex Schragal, and Kyle Gessel for helping me install the tower, and of course, my parents, for believing in me and especially my dad for lending so much time and his knowledge about building
stuff.