Updates & Stories

I have a life of discussion in and outside of the labor of Conservation Corps. Small talk has never been my forte. I often find myself bored of conversations with new people because I don’t desire to simply break the ice with them; I want to smash the ice to smithereens and sail away with them on an iceberg.  Read More

It’s hard to believe that we are now down to the final month of the 2015 Conservation Corps service term. There are so many memories that I would like to write about for this last post. I could easily write a memoir but in order to keep this reasonably short, I have decided to share this year’s highlights through pictures. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Or something like that. Read More

‘Resources Restored, Lives Changed’. The first time I read those words, I was watching the sunset on a Lake Superior dock in Bayfield, Wisconsin. It was my first week working with WisCorps, a conservation corps based in LaCrosse. A crew from Conservation Corps Minnesota wandered onto the beach near us, wearing their corps shirts with the tagline emblazoned on the back.  Read More

Look into the woods this time of year. Not at the fall canopy or at the ground sprinkled with drops from the great reservoir of color above. Don’t look for the ghostly brown of bounding deer readying themselves for guns in the woods. Don’t look for the swooping boughs of balsam fir whose aroma fast forwards us all to the coming holidays. Ignore the soft tamarack needles that make no effort to hide the appearance of having stolen all of the gold from Fort Knox. Look into the space between the beauty. It is here where you’ll find how much people care about these woods. Read More

When it comes to our ideas and opinions on the environment, my crew usually splits into two camps. One side fights for the trees and increasing sustainability, while the other advocates our efforts towards conservation and restoring the environment to what it once was.  Read More

The end of the water trails season is coming to a close and over the past six months I’ve written about a week in the life of a water trails crew, lessons learned on the river, the perils of portaging, the places we’ve been and the people we’ve met. I thought for this month to take step back and let my crew tell you some of their best moments from the water trails season. Read More

With only two months left in the term (crazy, right?), I thought I would use my last two blog posts to share some of the most memorable experiences I have had as a Youth Outdoors crew member. Looking back, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work alongside youth crews in Saint Paul. It has been great getting to know three different groups of kids, learning about their interests and backgrounds and getting the chance to teach them about leadership, culture and the environment. Read More

There is something about that little bubbling noise of a creek that brings my entire life into perspective. The water is carefree. It has no recollection of itself nor does it worry about others. All it knows is to flow with the constant pull of gravity downstream. But if I were a creek, I would hope to flow to the ocean. I want to be a part of something greater than myself.  Read More

When I lifted my head up I was alone. Burgundy and purple seed heads brushed against my face and shoulders. The sound of grass shaking in the wind washed all around the deeply rolling hills and over the high ridges that surrounded me. Inside that glacial kettle, a bowl of land ringed by undulating hills and ridges, my world had compressed. A pair of hawks banked along the ridges, crying out into the wind, certain of their place on this back forty. Alone, surrounded by a virgin tallgrass prairie, steeped in the purples, blues and gold of fall, I was transported to a Minnesota that once was, and perhaps to a future that might be again. Read More

Our crew is based about 30 minutes south of the Twin Cities in Shakopee, Minn. We’re what’s known as a “satellite crew”— a crew based out of a host shop away from Corps headquarters in Saint Paul. With five crews based in the capital city and three out of Three Rivers Park District, that leaves the Anoka and Shakopee crews as true satellites. As it turns out, I had no idea we were lonely outsiders until about halfway through our term. Read More