Updates & Stories

Since 2012, Conservation Corps crews in the Southern District have been able to make substantial improvements to public green space in the Truman and Lewisville area, particularly Perch Lake Park in Martin County.  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

Corps staff, current crew members and alumni from the '80s, '90s and 2000s gather for a Corps Happy Hour in Rochester. 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

Employees of the Enterprise fleet management department spent an afternoon working with a Corps crew to clean up an area of Lilydale Regional Park in Saint Paul. Thirteen people joined the YO2 crew of four to haul brush left from an earlier buckthorn removal project.  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

After 11 years as executive director, Len Price has announced he will retire from Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa at the end of the year. Price has guided the organization since 2005, just two years after it transitioned from the Minnesota DNR to a nonprofit.  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